A $55 million jump-start on the expansion of the Columbia Basin Project is under contract, thanks to federal stimulus funds.

Members of the Columbia Basin Development League heard federal, state and reclamation district officials discuss the project at their annual meeting in Moses Lake on Thursday.

Driving the program is the groundwater crisis in the Odessa Aquifer, east of the current irrigation project. Groundwater has been mined from that aquifer for more than 40 years, since farmers in that area rejected joining the original irrigation district that began receiving water in the 1950s. A special study of the Odessa area is under way to evaluate replacing pumped water with surface water from the Columbia Basin Project.

Wendy Christensen of the Bureau of Reclamation said a feasibility study is under way, with a draft report due next summer.

A full groundwater replacement project would mean irrigating 102,00 acres; a partial replacement would irrigate 57,000 acres , she said. Full replacement would mean building 50 miles of East High Canal, and 187 miles of laterals, with six siphons, two tunnels and 18 canal-pumping plants, with expansion of the existing East Low Canal by 47 miles with 176 miles of laterals to it. This would be a major expansion, with the possibility of a new reservoir site at Rocky Coulee.

Current stimulus funds include a $5 million program at Pinto Dam to allow water to be diverted to Crab Creek. A second siphon under Interstate-90 is under contract for $50 million, which will double the capacity of the East Low Canal south of that highway.

Bill Gray of the USBR described the current work, which includes about $25 million of state and federal funds to bring additional project water to the Potholes Reservoir, allowing more water to move to the Odessa lands, which extend south almost to the Snake River.

Derek Sandison of the state Department of Ecology, who oversees the state’s Office of Columbia River, was a second panel member describing the current status. The Office of Columbia River is a major player in the Odessa program.

Sandison was followed by Craig Simpson, manager of the East Irrigation District, where much of the major work will take place.

Hosting the panel was Mike Schwisow, former state agriculture department head, now representing the Columbia Basin Development League. He noted that it will come to competition for funds, when the studies have proven the feasibility of the new expansion.

Accompanying me to the meeting was Bruce Foxworthy of East Wenatchee, a former U.S. Geological Survey employee who did the original studies of Odessa groundwater 40 years ago. His report forecast what has happened to the groundwater of the Odessa Aquifer. But no one was listening then.