The Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology)is reviewing current information and is expected to issue a Report of Examination (ROE) approving the use of Lake Tapps as a municipal water supply in 2010. Ecology posted a draft Lake Tapps ROESs on its website for public review and comment. Comments are due by June 25, 2010. For more information, visit Ecology's Lake Tapps website.

The Washington State Department of Ecology's Draft Reports of Examination is available for viewing and commenting >

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Letter from the Lake Tapps Community Council

9/21/2010
Chuck Clarke, CEO
Cascade Water Alliance

Chuck,
The Lake Tapps Community Council has reviewed the Record of Examination with regard to the Lake Tapps Water Rights. We are extremely pleased that CWA has fully honored and incorporated the laboriously negotiated CWA/Community Agreements into the Water Right. We also appreciate the friendly 'New Neighbor' philosophy shown recently in addressing topics of mutual interest such as the milfoil challenges. Chuck, you and your team have been clearly instrumental in achieving this outcome. We appreciate all that you and your staff have done.

We commend you for your 'Out of the Box Thinking' and willingness to go beyond the previous norms. This is clearly shown by your ability to stop the lake loss at the powerhouse [a feat accomplished by Joe that was previously thought to be impossible], your vastly improved control over inflows, and your timely refill this spring following historically low winter river flows.

We also wish to extend our congratulations and thanks to the full CWA board and especially Lloyd for his personal efforts and willingness to work toward a mutually satisfactory outcome.

The sign of a good agreement between parties with vastly differing objectives is that no one gets TOTALLY everything they asked for. Despite our pleasure with the ROE we remain concerned that the failure to provide a mechanism for dealing with unforeseen long term low river flows could cause a future Emergency with no meaningful plan or mechanism to deal with it.

With that said, the community looks forward to a warm long term and mutually beneficial relationship as we move forward into the future.

Sincerely,
Lake Tapps Community Council
Dr. Leon Stucki, VP, Lake Tapps Community Council

Download a PDF of the letter >

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Lake Tapps Water Rights and Supply Project Final Environmental Impact Statement

On January 29, 2010, Cascade Water Alliance published a Notice of Availability and Request for Comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement prepared for the Lake Tapps Reservoir Water Rights and Supply Project (Project) in compliance with the Washington State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) under Chapter 43.21C RCW. Cascade Water Alliance (Cascade) is the project proponent and lead agency. The comment period on the Draft EIS closed May 21, 2010.

The Final EIS was issed on June 16, 2010 and is available to the public online on our Lake Tapps Water Rights page. Copies are also available for review at Cascade's office. The Final EIS consists of a Fact Sheet, comments received and Cascade's responses to the comments and portions of the Draft EIS revised in response to comments received.

The Final EIS is also available on compact disc (CD) for a cost of $5, or printed copy for $200, from the following address:

Cascade Water Alliance
11400 SE 8th Street, Suite 440
Bellevue, WA 98004
Phone: 425-453-0930

The EIS was prepared in support of Proposed Action, which is for Cascade's Board of Directors to approve Cascade's operation of the Project and to request approval by Ecology of the four municipal water rights Applications. The three basic elements of the Project operation are as follows:

• Cascade would divert water from the White River into Lake Tapps Reservoir, store water in, and withdraw water from the reservoir for municipal water supply purposes;
• Cascade would operate the Project in a manner to provide enhanced flows in the White River (Recommended Flows) consistent with the 2008 White River Management Agreement with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe; and
• Cascade would operate the Project to store water and maintain the levels of Lake Tapps Reservoir to support recreation consistent with agreements between Cascade and the Lake Tapps Community.

More specifically, Ecology's approval of the Applications would permit the following:

• Cascade would divert water from the White River into Lake Tapps Reservoir at an average annual rate of up to 75 cubic feet per second (cfs) (54,300 acre-feet per year) for municipal, industrial, and commercial water supply purposes;
• Cascade would divert water from the White River at a maximum instantaneous rate of up to 1,000 cfs (this maximum rate would vary by season and would be lower at other times of the year);
• Cascade would store up to 46,700 acre-feet of water in Lake Tapps Reservoir for municipal, industrial, and commercial water supply purposes;
• Cascade would withdraw water from Lake Tapps Reservoir at an average annual rate of up to 75 cfs (54,300 acre-feet per year) for municipal, industrial, and commercial water supply purposes. Cascade would withdraw water from Lake Tapps Reservoir at a maximum instantaneous rate of 135 cfs; and
• Cascade would divert water from the White River, store water in Lake Tapps Reservoir, and release water through the tailrace canal back to the White River in support of the following purposes: hydropower and other beneficial uses including recreational reservoir levels; winter reservoir levels; fish and wildlife habitat protection and enhancement; and maintenance of water quality for recreational purposes in the reservoir and to meet other regulatory requirements. For example, these other beneficial uses include operation of the sedimentation basins, operation of the fish screens and fish bypass pipeline, Spring Refill of Lake Tapps Reservoir, and maintaining water surface elevations in Lake Tapps Reservoir for recreation purposes.

As fully described in Chapter 13 of the EIS, the average flow rate of 75 cfs may be increased to an average flow rate of 82 cfs. The additional 7 cfs is referred to as "Regional Reserved Water". The Regional Reserved Water would not alter or affect the environmental analysis described in the EIS.