As the saying goes: whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting. But in Walla Walla, people are now working together to find solutions to the region’s water problems.
Since 2019, a committee has been working on a basin-wide plan, called Walla Walla Water 2050, to improve water quality, supply, and policy.
“Our water problems have been in the making for well over a century,” said Linda Herbert, who represents the Blue Mountain Land Trust on the Walla Walla Basin Advisory Committee.
The basin spans both sides of the Washington-Oregon border, covering more than 1,700 square miles. For years, people throughout the basin have used more water than is available, Herbert said. There’s just not enough to go around for farmers, drinking water and fish, especially as the climate changes.
“It looks like bad math to me, and it's particularly problematic in the late spring, the summer and the early fall,” Herbert said during a packed open house, where more than 100 people could ask questions about the Walla Walla water strategy.
Those years of water worries brought tribes, scientists, farmers and city leaders together. They hope to come up with a water plan for the future. It’s modeled after a larger vision in Central Washington’s Yakima Basin.
Corinne Sams, an elected leader with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, launched a series of presentations at the open house. This was the third year that leaders have hosted a water strategy open house.
Collaboration is essential for the plans to work, Sams said.
“We can see our shared vision of a healthy, thriving basin for fish and farmers all come to fruition, all because we chose to work together,” she said. “This connection is what will protect our interests today and for future generations.”
Recently, the tribe has worked to bring spring Chinook back to the basin. As of Monday, they’d counted almost 1,900 of the salmon swimming past a bridge in Milton-Freewater, Oregon.
Leaders on the advisory committee said the solutions will be complex and cost millions of dollars. Eventually, they’ll need federal funding.
For now, a lot of those ideas are being studied, said Travis Trumbull, who represents agricultural interests on the Basin Advisory Committee.
“This is all unraveling a lot of paradigms and a lot of complications, but we have the tools and the strategy and the plan to get us there,” Trumbull said.
He said the group is working on ideas every day. Right now, they’re studying how much water is needed and how much is available for irrigators.
