Native nations collaborate with WA, OR on Walla Walla water rights

This article was originally published by Underscore Native News.

The problem has long been clear. There are more rights and demand than there is water available in the Walla Walla Basin, where the largest river has been seasonally running dry since the development of irrigated agriculture in the early 20th century, and which is facing the prospect of significantly reduced snowpack in the coming decades.

The solution has been much harder to identify. But an expansive strategic document, the Walla Walla Water 2050 Plan, endeavors to provide a path forward, taking into account numerous stakeholders on both sides of the Washington/Oregon border. 

For the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), whose traditional homelands encompass the basin, a lot is at stake, and they’ve seen failed efforts to address the situation in the past.

But John Barkley, chairman of the CTUIR Water Commission, has high hopes this time around, with improved collaboration among principal stakeholders. The Oregon Legislature recently earmarked $2.5 million for water projects in the basin, including multiple CTUIR-backed efforts, while Washington is providing matching funds to help implement the projects, which are part of the 30-year strategic plan.

“The Walla Walla 2050 plan follows other failed attempts by stakeholders to bring resolution to this dilemma,” Barkley said. “This plan will restore balance to the basin and revive our endeared salmon so tribal members can exercise their treaty rights to harvest anadromous fisheries, as our ancestors have done for millennia and what was secured in our Treaty of 1855.”

What’s at stake for the CTUIR

The Umatilla, Cayuse and Walla Walla tribes have long called the Walla Walla River Basin home. According to the official Walla Walla Basin Watershed Strategy website, which is jointly maintained by the governments of the CTUIR and the states of Oregon and Washington, the name Walla Walla means “place of many small streams” and originates from the Sahaptin language spoken by the Umatilla and other Washington tribes. 

The watershed’s rivers and streams flow through both Oregon and Washington and are bordered by the Columbia and Snake rivers. The basin encompasses 1,758 square miles of land and three subbasins. Overall, there are around 85,000 irrigated acres. 

The Walla Walla Water 2050 Plan is a long-term initiative aimed at preserving water within the basin. The basin has long been overallocated, meaning there are more legal rights to use the water than there is water available to use. Low streamflows have impacted fish populations, including the extirpation of spring Chinook salmon and critical imperilment of steelhead. 

The expansive strategic plan aims to find solutions, including improving water management and streamflows in the watershed, for the diverse needs of numerous stakeholders in two states. The Walla Walla Basin Advisory Committee is using an integrated water resource management approach in an effort to account for the widely varying needs of those stakeholders. 

The committee consists of representatives from the agriculture, environment, recreation and quality of life, economic development, local government, tribal government and federal and state government sectors. The committee advises the governments of the CTUIR, Oregon and Washington, using a consensus-based governance structure and working to build partnerships and connections while providing policy and project development advice to implement the strategic plan. 

Lisa Ganuelas, a member at-large of the CTUIR Board of Trustees and of the CTUIR Water Commission, has been working on legislation involving the Walla Walla Basin since she moved to Oregon to become the tribe’s legislative coordinator in 1998. 

“When we first started working, mainly on the Oregon side, we knew it was going to be a long-term effort, because it was a bi-state issue,” Ganuelas said. 

In the early 2000s, the CTUIR and Oregon attempted to work together to preserve the Walla Walla Basin. According to Ganuelas, those efforts fell short without the involvement of Washington. CTUIR officials like what they see this time around with the involvement of all the major stakeholders. The goal of the plan is to ensure  enough water for fish, farms and people for generations to come. 

The CTUIR will receive $2.5 million recently approved by the state of Oregon to implement key water and habitat restoration projects outlined in the plan, with Washington providing $2.4 million in matching funds. The money will support six CTUIR initiatives, including floodplain and streamflow restoration, fish passage improvements, stormwater infiltration, irrigation upgrades and water quality enhancements in the South Fork Walla Walla River.

Ganuelas said a key to crafting an ultimately successful plan was effort by the states to not just collaborate with the tribe, but also to understand the cultural and historical importance of the Walla Walla Basin to the CTUIR. 

“We had to learn and understand each other,” Ganuelas said. “There have been barriers on the non-Indian understanding of Indians, Indian rights and our treaty.”

Historical and cultural significance

In 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed Joel Palmer superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Oregon Territory. Palmer’s role was to negotiate with the region’s tribes, with the goal of increasing white settlement by clearing tribes from their original territory and moving them to confined reservations. The result was a series of treaties, often called the “Palmer treaties,” signed with various tribes in the 1850s.

Among them was the Walla Walla Treaty, signed by the Walla Walla, Cayuse and Umatilla tribes on June 9, 1855. The tribes agreed to live on the Umatilla Indian Reservation and ceded 6.4 million acres to the United States while reserving rights for fishing, hunting, gathering foods and medicines and pasturing livestock. 

Since time immemorial, salmon have been of critical importance to the tribes’ culture and subsistence. Chinook salmon, in particular, serve as one of their most important first foods. 

“They [salmon] fed us and we take care of them so that they can keep on feeding future generations,” Ganuelas said.

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Chinook salmon historically inhabited the Walla Walla Basin in large numbers. The Nine Mile Dam, constructed in 1905, led to the disappearance of the spring Chinook and contributed to the Walla Walla River running dry each summer for 100 years. 

In 2000, the CTUIR launched an effort to reintroduce Chinook salmon to the Walla Walla Basin, supported by an agreement a year later among the tribes, federal agencies and three irrigation districts to improve streamflows. The CTUIR’s Fisheries Habitat Program led the reintroduction, taking into account the cultural, historical and ecological significance of the fish. 

In 2021, the Walla Walla Fish Hatchery was constructed near the south fork of the Walla Walla River. The goal is for the hatchery to release up to 500,000 smolts into the basin annually and have 5,000 adult fish return each year. The CTUIR Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Program worked with the City of Walla Walla in 2023 to release 100,000 juvenile spring Chinook salmon in the Mill Creek watershed. 

In addition to Chinook reintroduction, the CTUIR have been working more broadly to improve the conditions of the Walla Walla Basin.

Funding challenges

The most immediate concern of the Walla Walla Water 2050 Plan is securing future funds for implementation. The plan is ambitious and requires a steady funding stream.

In recent legislative sessions, lawmakers in Oregon and Washington have authorized the strategic plan and allocated millions of dollars for it, including the nearly $5 million in earmarked and matching funds for CTUIR projects. Much more money will be needed in the coming years to keep the plan’s priorities moving forward.

Drafting the plan began in 2020, and a funding process was developed in 2022. Implementation started in 2023. Right now, most of the allocated funding has to be spent within two years, but many of the projects within the 30-year plan will take multiple years to complete. The Walla Walla Basin Advisory Committee is looking for a sustainable financial infrastructure to maintain the momentum and tackle the bigger projects on its agenda. 

Anton Chiono, the habitat conservation project leader at the CTUIR, said the committee needs to identify long-term funding for continued plan implementation, communications and outreach, as well as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation planning processes. 

“It’s just the foundation to addressing the water management challenges in the basin,” said Chiono. “We’re going to have to keep building on that foundation into the future.”

For the Walla Walla Water 2050 Plan to be successful, both Oregon and Washington need to financially support projects in each state. 

“That means you have two different sets of laws — two different water management frameworks that the states are coming at that basin with — and that has been a huge problem for us for decades,” Chiono said.

“One of the things that we needed to try to do in the Walla Walla was allow the states to work together and treat the basin as a whole,” Chiono added. “And so part of that was getting the ability for Oregon to spend money on projects in Washington and Washington spending money on projects in Oregon.”

Lack of that kind of coordination among tribes, stakeholders, states and the federal government previously impeded progress on water solutions in the basin. Chris Kowitz, the north central region manager for the Oregon Water Resources Department, said that was the case when he joined the department at the Pendleton regional office six years ago.

“When I took this role in September of 2019, the planning work that was happening in this basin was running out of funding and had hit some obstacles that had kind of caused that group [the Walla Walla Water Management Partnership] to stop their work,” Kowitz said. 

Federal funding cuts also remain on the committee’s minds. 

“Looking at what’s happening at the federal government right now, I have concerns around our ability to continue to get support and funding from our federal partners,” Kowitz said. “Making sure that we have funding secured to keep implementing the plan is something that I think will be a challenge for us, because when the state budgets are healthy, I think we have a compelling case to make on why investing in the basin is important. But we go into a recession, and hard decisions will have to be made on how money is allocated.”

Kowitz also noted the importance of maintaining collaborative momentum on such a long-term project.

“People lose interest,” Kowitz said. “A lot of what we’re proposing to do is going to take years, and, in some cases, maybe a decade for our work now to be realized. And for some people, that’s a challenge when they come to these meetings, month after month, and nothing is really changing, because it just takes a long time.”

Moving forward

As part of the six funded CTUIR projects, the Walla Walla Basin Advisory Committee is revisiting the design of the Milton-Freewater Nursery Bridge, built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reduce flood risk to the city of Milton-Freewater, to identify improvements and efficiencies. Kowitz said smaller undertakings like Milton-Freewater are critical to the overall plan. 

“I think we need to continue to find ways to work on implementation of the smaller-scale projects that are kind of accessory to these big keystone projects we’ve identified, because these accessory projects are going to be important in our overall success,” Kowitz said.

During the fourth annual Eastern Oregon Economic Summit on July 24, attendees had the opportunity to tour the bridge site and the Walla Walla Fish Hatchery, located in separate parts of Milton-Freewater. Tour participants learned about “the collaborative, cross-border water management system that is shaping the future of agriculture, habitat restoration and community resilience.”

Offering the public opportunities to hear from experts and see the sites up close helps spread word about the plan. Travis Trumbull, the district manager of the Walla Walla River Irrigation District, was on hand with Chiono and Kowitz to answer questions. 

Sandy Porter, vice president of academic affairs at Treasure Valley Community College, said she participated in the water tour because she is interested in how communities can find resolutions that benefit all parties, especially on contentious water issues. Prior to becoming a college administrator, she taught in the agriculture industry for about 15 years. 

“I think it’s a great opportunity to see a community that took multiple interests and found a way to navigate them together,” Porter said. “And I think they found a resolution that’s good for all parties.”

At the end of the water tour, Porter said she had a better understanding of why the Walla Walla Water 2050 Plan is critical for the community.

“I think it’s needed,” she said. 

Continued collaboration among the tribes, Oregon, Washington, federal government and local stakeholders will be required in the years to come. Progress moves slow, but Ganuelas is determined to secure the basin for the next generation and beyond.

“All these things take a long time,” Ganuelas said. “We have to work with both sides.”