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Article: Slade Gorton Plan Could Improve Yakima River Salmon Runs
- Article from:
- Yakima Herald-Republic
- Article date:
- March 3, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2000 Yakima Herald-Republic. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Improving water conditions for migratory fish in the lower Yakima
River is the goal of a bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Slade
Gorton, R-Wash.
The measure seeks money to study switching the source of
irrigation water for the Kennewick Irrigation District from the
Yakima to the Columbia rivers.
The change would double the amount of water in the Yakima River
below Prosser during the late summer, when low flows and high
temperatures damage fish.
River operators try to maintain a minimum of 400 cubic feet per
second in the Yakima below Prosser. The switch to the Columbia,
called a pump exchange, could mean flows of 800 cfs during the late
summer.
Gorton called the bill a step toward reversing ...