USDA: Supplant Odessa aquifer use

OTHELLO – The USDA is moving ahead with a plan to draw water out of the Columbia River for irrigation in an effort to curtail aquifer groundwater depletion.

In an announcement Wednesday, Nov. 1, the agency said it will accept the recommendation of the federal Bureau of Reclamation to use “new Columbia River diversions” for irrigation water for 70,000 acres of the Odessa subarea in the East Columbia River Irrigation District.

Under the plan, water siphoned from the Columbia River will replace groundwater currently being withdrawn from the Odessa aquifer to irrigate land.

The plan calls for a on...