From the highways over mountain passes to sprawling irrigation projects that underly the region’s agricultural economy, infrastructure plays a role in nearly everyone’s life in Central Washington.
Federal funding is critical to maintain, update and build many of those large-scale projects.
In the Yakima Valley, drought and water shortages have hit irrigators hard over the last few years. The Yakima Tieton Canal, more than a century old, was damaged by Retreat Fire this summer. If it fails, it would cost local residents $2 billion annually.
The Yakima Herald-Republic spoke with the two candidates for Washington’s 4th Congressional District, Jerrod Sessler and Dan Newhouse, about how they hope to address infrastructure issues should they be elected to Congress.
Newhouse owns an 850-acre farm near Sunnyside and is the former director of the state Department of Agriculture. Sessler of Prosser served in the Navy and has worked as a businessman in home services and as a NASCAR driver. Both are Republicans.
Both candidates addressed specific questions about Snake River dams in another article. This is part of a series of articles focusing on different issues in the race for Congress.
The Yakima Basin has experienced several years of drought and restrictions on water usage. What do you see ways to address issues around drought in Central Washington going forward?
Newhouse: Newhouse acknowledged the dangers posed by climate change and wants to improve water storage.
“In just over a 20-year period we were able to build five reservoirs over a million-acre feet of storage up in the Cascades and the last one was completed in the 1930s. We’ve not been able to build additional storage since,” he said. “There’s just been too many challenges and we’ve got to address it, to meet the demands of a growing population.”
He praised efforts to build a new reservoir near Thorp in Kittitas County and added that groundwater storage and efficient irrigation were also important.
“The project that’s going on up in Kittitas County, which is a small step, but it’s going to be a very positive one, will help us build it on into the future. We’ll need even more storage responding to climate change,” Newhouse said.
He noted the effects of climate change, including the possibility of smaller snowpacks in warmer winters, which will affect the supply of water for irrigation.
“It’s becoming harder and harder to depend on the sixth reservoir, which is the snowpack. Over the last decades and we’ve had several drought years and short water years,” Newhouse said. “We’ve seen that before, but not with the frequency that we’re seeing, so we have got to respond to that or we are at risk of losing a very important industrial economic fabric of the Yakima Valley.”
Sessler: Sessler sees overregulation as the cause of water shortages.
“We don’t actually have a shortage of water. We have an excess of regulation. There’s plenty of water flowing down these rivers that we could use, but we’ve got lawsuits, we’ve got judge rulings, we’ve got regulations, we’ve got the EPA, we’ve got all these different, oftentimes unaccountable, agencies that are creating laws and restrictions on our farmers and we still need to get those things out of the way,” he said.
Water rights and distribution are based on seniority in the Yakima Basin. Senior water rights holders are entitled to their share of water before junior rights holders.
Sessler said agencies like the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation are too risk averse and should proceed with irrigating more land. He wants to cut through red tape and focus on building and construction. He added that environmental concerns hinder those efforts.
“There also other big projects that we that we need to consider and I think that because of the nature of the security from a federal standpoint on the food that is produced here in this region that there should be some federal considerations, financial support for making sure that we have security around our water and making sure our farmers have the water that they need,” Sessler said.
What would you do to support infrastructure projects in Central Washington?
Sessler: The Columbia Basin Project is at the top of Sessler’s mind and he wants to see increased irrigation in Central Washington to address shrinking aquifers. He also wants to improve water storage.
“There are several other projects that are related to the Yakima Valley. They’re talking about doing a Roza storage projects, which would be really incredible, just to ensure that we don’t run out of the volume that we need in the Yakima Valley,” he said.
Sessler said helping and protecting farmers is a primary concern when it comes to supporting infrastructure and irrigation projects.
“I want to do everything I can to make sure the farmers are successful at the end of the day, every farm is a business,” Sessler said. “But the truth is, their job is even more difficult than just running a business because in business you have a lot more control than what you do as a farmer and that’s why we have to protect our farmers.”
He mentioned funding for infrastructure, including reallocating federal funds and trying to use state funds.
“The sad truth, the vital truth is, is the money is already there. We’re wasting so much money in our government. We’ve got, probably, 70% more employees than what we need,” Sessler said. “It will be easy to allocate it if we can stop spending, we can get a group of congressmen in Congress that are willing to say no to spending dumb things.”
Newhouse: Newhouse shared Sessler’s concerns about shrinking aquifers and the need for irrigation water, including irrigating more land through the Columbia Basin Project.
“Aquifers are shrinking. People are having to put their pumps deeper and deeper and deeper, pulling up not very high-quality water. Communities, it’s not just agriculture, towns are experiencing that, too. That whole Columbia Basin project is a focus,” he said.
Newhouse added that irrigation infrastructure needs to be updated throughout the West to meet growing demand and growing populations.
Newhouse praised the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan and the collaboration of various stakeholders, including addressing efficient water use and fish habitat and passage.
Newhouse added that as a member of the House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee, he has been working to get funds to infrastructure projects across the region. He said it’s a national issue, listing a need for irrigation projects, bridges, roads, airports and wastewater treatment plants.
The biggest challenges Newhouse sees when it comes to funding infrastructure projects are inflation and bureaucratic processes.
The federal government can help address inflation “by getting our fiscal house in order. We can’t control everything, but we can control some of the things that are driving inflation and overspending by the federal government is that is absolutely part of that.”
“We’ve been working on permit reform. It can take so long, for all kinds of different infrastructure needs in this country, to get the permits required to actually build the thing,” Newhouse added. “We need to streamline this, cut the red tape or get rid of it completely, so that you know you can get the money where we appropriated to instead of putting up these insurmountable challenges for communities.”
What do you think about the Yakima Tieton Canal and its needs for improvements?
Sessler: Sessler reiterated that red tape needed to be cut to make improvements on the Yakima Tieton Canal.
He praised the canal’s constructors, noting the difficult terrain that had gone into the 100-year-old canal, and said he would support several different efforts to improve or replace it.
“I’m an engineer, so I have some ideas for some potential solutions. There are some less popular solutions out there, and there are some very expensive solutions and so I would be in support of making sure that we mitigate that risk,” Sessler said.
He acknowledged the $2 billion annual economic value provided to the Naches, Tieton and Cowiche communities by the canal, and wanted to ensure that it was not threatened.
Newhouse: The canal needs more than a repair, Newhouse said. Efforts to fix it might require an emergency declaration, he added.
“Without taking some action here, the farmers depending on that system are in a very precarious situation. We’re looking forward to working with those folks to see what we can do,” he said.