07.25.24

Cantwell Applauds $16 Million to Boost Yakima River Drought Resistance

Cantwell-championed Yakima River Basin Integrated Plan laid groundwork for completing fish passage projects

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) celebrated $16 million in investments for four Yakima Basin drought resistance projects from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland made this announcement today while visiting the Cle Elum Dam to celebrate the completion of the Juvenile Fish Passage Facility and the groundbreaking of the Adult Collection Facility. In December 2023, Sen. Cantwell wrote a letter of support for the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan’s application to receive this IRA funding.

“Today’s announcements demonstrate why the Yakima River Basin Integrated Plan is the premier model for uniting diverse stakeholders behind a plan to protect salmon and agricultural communities,” said Sen. Cantwell. “Investing in our aquifer recharge projects and improved water delivery strengthens the Basin’s over $4 billion ag economy, and the completion of the fish passage facility at Cle Elum Dam has us one step closer to opening nearly 30 miles of habitat and restoring one of the country's largest sockeye salmon runs.”

Sen. Cantwell has long championed the Yakima Basin integrated water management plan and has been a staunch advocate for protecting and strengthening critical salmon populations. In 2019, Sen. Cantwell led the passage of the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project Phase III Act, which she secured in the historic bipartisan Public Lands Package.

The Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project Phase III Act authorized an integrated and collaborative approach to addressing water challenges in the Yakima Valley. The bill was authored to restore ecosystems and fisheries, ensure communities have access to water, help rehabilitate and repair the Wapato Irrigation Project, and extend water supplies for farmers in times of drought. Funding for the fish passage projects was authorized through Sen. Cantwell’s legislation.

The Juvenile Fish Passage Facility includes an innovative helix design that will allow juvenile fish to pass the dam and migrate through the Cle Elum River, Yakima River, and into the Columbia River Basin. The Adult Collection Facility will collect returning adult fish to be transported to Cle Elum Lake to spawn. Currently, approximately 20,000 adult salmon return to the Yakima River Basin each year and with the completion of the Cle Elum Fish Passage Facility, it is estimated up to 100,000 salmon could return to the Basin.  

Construction on the Cle Elum Fish Passage Project started in 2015 and is designed to restore salmon steelhead populations in the Cle Elum River, once one of the largest sockeye salmon runs in the lower 48 states. In preparation for the new fish passage facilities, the Yakama Nation and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have also created a reintroduction plan for sockeye and coho salmon, Chinook salmon, summer steelhead, and Pacific Lamprey.

In 2021, Sen. Cantwell secured a historic $2.85 billion investment in salmon and ecosystem restoration programs in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including $400 million for a new community-based restoration program focused on removing fish passage barriers.