RITZVILLE, Wash., Aug. 2, 2012 — The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association's (CSRIA) plan for irrigators to privately fund and/or use private financing to bring surface water to the Odessa Aquifer Subarea north of I-90 is being widely endorsed by many newspapers and decision-makers as a viable, cost-effective and realistic option to immediately begin replacing the use of groundwater from the declining Odessa Subarea Aquifer in eastern Washington. The CSRIA proposed privately funded plan for the aquifer area north of I-90 is much less capital intensive and could be developed in a short timeframe and offers an immediate solution on how to proceed to begin effectively resolving the Odessa Aquifer depletion issue.
Following are recent editorials in several of the region's newspapers endorsing the privately funded solution:
- http://m.spokesman.com/stories/2012/jul/13/editorial-water-flows-to-farms-with-help-of/
- http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/01/20/1794124/plan-to-irrigate-odessa-appears.html
- http://www.columbiabasinherald.com/opinion/editorials/article_bf77501a-42ed-11e1-bbee-001871e3ce6c.html
For more information about the privately funded plan to help the Odessa Aquifer, contact Darryll Olsen of CSRIA at 509-783-1623 or Email.
About CSRIA (http://www.csria.org)
The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association has become a leader in promoting water conservation and water efficiency in the Pacific Northwest. CSRIA's membership includes row crop, vineyard, orchard and livestock operations and we irrigate about 250,000 acres of prime agricultural lands in Washington State and primarily consist of operations along the Columbia-Snake River system, relying almost exclusively on private investment to build and operate highly efficient, state-of-the-art river pump stations and water distribution systems. Additionally, many municipalities and port districts are members of CSRIA. In economic terms, CSRIA members annually generate about $475-600 million in state and local income by purchasing goods and services from numerous economic sectors, ranging from paper products and food packaging to financial, legal and marketing services.
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