GREATER WENATCHEE DIVISION, CHIEF JOSEPH DAM PROJECT DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF RECLAMATION, Boise, Idaho. Dam project, Washington. Part I. TRANSMITTAL This is my report outlining the physical and financial problems connected with the development of the seven units of the Greater Wenatchee division, Chief Joseph Dam project, Washington. My conclusions and recommendations are presented in part VIII at the end of the report. Development of the 7 units of the Greater Wenatchee division would provide a dependable water supply for 10,852 irrigable acres, including 9,357 acres of new land, along the Columbia River between Rock Island Dam and Pateros, Wash. These units include: North Pateros, South Pateros, Antoine Creek, Howard Flat, Brays Landing, East, and Moses Coulee. This is the extent of the irrigation development related to the Chief Joseph Dam project on which I am prepared to report at this time. However, further investigations are planned, and in subsequent years I expect to report on the following irrigation Ι divisions of the Chief Joseph Dam project: This report is authorized by the Federal reclamation laws (act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto) and Public Law 577 (act of July 19, 1952). 1 PLAN OF DEVELOPMENT The irrigable lands of the seven units in the division are on separate land bodies located several miles apart; therefore, a plan of development is presented for each unit. Under each plan, water would be pumped from the Columbia River and conveyed through a discharge line to the unit lands. Each unit would be served by a closed pipe distribution system. Pressure would be provided for sprinkler irrigation on 5 units: East, Brays Landing, Antoine Creek, South Pateros, and North Pateros; the other 2 units, Moses Coulee and Howard Flat, would be irrigated by the gravity method. FINANCIAL DATA At price levels of July 1955, the construction costs of the Greater Wenatchee division are estimated at $10,878,000. The estimated capitalized operating costs are $905,000, resulting in a total cost of $11,783,000. Annual operating costs used in the benefit-cost analysis are estimated at $175,290. Total annual benefits are estimated at $3,060,360 for a 100-year period of analysis. The ratio of annual benefits to annual equivalent costs is 6.44 to 1. Total repayment by water users over a 50-year period would be $8,239,750, 70 percent of the total reimbursable costs of the division ($11,687,800). DATA REQUIRED BY PUBLIC LAW 577 (ACT OF JULY 17, 1952) Section 2 of the Public Law 577 requires that certain information be provided in reporting on irrigation developments in connection with Chief Joseph Dam. The required information follows: (a) The estimated construction cost of Chief Joseph Dam and Reservoir, excluding interest during construction on interest bearing facilities, including a 16-generator powerplant with an installed capacity of 1,024,000 kilowatts, plus the cost of irrigation facilities for the authorized Foster Creek division and the Greater Wenatchee division, including capitalized operating costs, amounts to $176,274,400. (6) The cost of $176,274,400 is allocated to the various functions as follows: Power, $159,956,700; irrigation, $16,205,000; and fish and wildlife, $112,700. The power allocation is suballocated to commercial power ($158,736,200) and irrigation pumping power ($1,220,500). The irrigation pumping power is made up of $243,800 for Foster Creek division and $976,700 for the Greater Wenatchee division. The fish and wildlife allocation is made up of $17,500 for the Foster Creek division and $95,200 for the Greater Wenatchee division. The irrigation allocation is made up of $4,517,200 for the Foster Creek division and $11,687,800 for the Greater Wenatchee division. The total allocation to Chief Joseph Dam is $158,736,200; total to Foster Creek division is $4,778,500, and total to Greater Wenatchee division is $12,759,700. The allocations and suballocations noted above were made by the Bureau of Reclamation in order to comply with the provisions of Public Law 577. The final allocation of the costs of the Chief Joseph Dam is the responsibility of the construction agency—the Corps of Engineers, Department of Army. Once that agency has made such per acre.. per acre.. an allocation, in consultation with other agencies involved, it will be used in subsequent studies pursuant to Public Law 577. (c) Annual operating costs, including replacements and the cost of pumping power for the Chief Joseph Dam and Foster Creek division and operating costs and pumping power for the Greater Wenatchee irrigation division, are estimated to total $2,383,035. The costs are made up of $2,191,000 for power facilities (the dam) and $192,035 for irrigation facilities. The total for irrigation facilities is made up of $50,080 for the Foster Creek division and $141,955 for the Greater Wenatchee division. (d) Irrigators on the 2 irrigation divisions could be reasonably expected to repay $10,484,690 in 50 years, 65 percent of the total costs allocated to irrigation. Average annual repayment on construction costs would be $209,694 for the 2 divisions, or $14.16 per acre. Water charges to the irrigators would vary by land classes. Proposed water charges (total, including annual operating costs) are: Foster Creek Division: Bridgeport Bar unit: 4F lands. - per acre.. $23. 00 4H lands do.. 13. 50 Total annual water charge.. 13, 110. 00 Average charge per acre. 17. 98 Brewster Flat unit: All lands 24. 00 Total annual charge. 58, 368. 00 Average charge per acre.. 24. 00 Bluebottle Flat unit: 4F(1) 35. 00 4F(2) do.. 22. 50 Total annual charge. 23, 500.00 Average oharge per acre. 29. 38 Greater Wenatchee division: 4F(1) lands - per acre.. 35. 00 4F(2) lands do.. 22. 50 All general farmlands do... 15. 00 Total annual charge. 306, 750. 00 Average charge per acre 28. 27 Annual water charges for all lands in the Foster Creek division and the Greater Wenatchee division would be $401,728. The average annual charge per acre for construction and operating costs would be $27.12. (e) The costs allocated to irrigation in excess of the irrigator's ability to repay on the Foster Creek and the Greater Wenatchee divisions, respectively, are $2,229,100 and $3,448,050, totaling $5,677,150. This amount will be returned to the Federal Treasury through surplus power revenues from Chief Joseph Dam powerplant. () The power produced at Chief Joseph Dam will be marketed by Bonneville Power Administration. The rates charged for power will be established by the Bonneville Power Administration and approved by the Federal Power Commission. These rates will return to the Federal Treasury the annual costs of operation, maintenance, and replacements for the powerplant, and amortize the commercial power investment in 50 years at 2 percent interest. Power for irrigation pumping will be available from high-voltage facilities of the Bonneville Power Administration at a cost of 1 mill per kilowatt-hour. Step-down transformation, where provided by the Bonneville Power Administration, will cost another 0.5 mill per kilowatt-hour. Because the Federal power system is not available to all units of the division, power will be wheeled over the facilities of local power distributors to some of the units. Annual operating costs will include an amount to pay these wheeling costs as well as the 1 mill cost to the Federal power system. The estimated costs to the irrigation areas or units for pumping power are presented below. Mills per Foster Creek division: kilowatt-hour Bridgeport Bar area.. 2. 38 Bridgeport townsite area. 2. 07 Brewster Flat unit. 1. O Bluebottle Flat unit. 2. 7 Greater Wenatchee division: East unit.. 1.0 Moses Coulee unit. 1. O Brays Landing unit. 1. 08 Howard Flat unit 2. 22 Antoine Creek unit. 2. 24. South Pateros unit. 2. 9 North Pateros unit. 2. 9 (9) The final allocation of costs on Chief Joseph Dam, to be made by the Department of Army will likely include a nonreimbursable allocation to fish and wildlife. An amount of $17,500 has been allocated to fish and wildlife in connection with the Foster Creek division and $95,200 is allocated to that function in the Greater Wenatchee division. (h) The ratio of total benefits to costs on the combined Chief Joseph Dam, Foster Creek division, and Greater Wenatchee division is 2.57 to 1.' The ratio of total irrigation benefits on Foster Creek division and Greater Wenatchee division over a 50-year period is 4.70 to 1 and 5.29 to 1, respectively. The ratio of net direct irrigation benefits to Federal costs over the same period is 1.52 to 1 for the Foster Creek division and 1.72 to 1 for the Greater Wenatchee division. (i) The ratio of net direct benefits per acre to irrigators repayment per acre on construction is 7 to 1 for the Foster Creek division and 5.9 to 1 for the Greater Wenatchee division and to irrigators annual water charge is 3.30 to 1 for the Foster Creek division and 3.2 to 1 for the Greater Wenatchee division. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Several governmental and local agencies and many individuals have provided valuable information and cooperated in the investigations necessary for this report. They include: The Bonneville Power Administration, Department of the Interior; Corps of Engineers, Department of the Army; the Soil Conservation Service, Department of Agriculture; members of the staffs of the Extension Service and Experiment Stations, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Washington State College; the Chelan, Okanogan, and Douglas County Public Utility Districts; the United Water Co. and other irrigation organizations; and many individual orchardists in the division area. The. assistance of all is gratefully acknowledged. PART II. GENERAL DESCRIPTION The Greater Wenatchee division of the Chief Joseph Dam project is located in the Columbia River Valley between Moses Coulee on the south and Pateros, Wash., on the north. It comprises seven units which are completely separate land bodies requiring independent irrigation systems. The units, from north to south, are: (1) North Pateros unit, (2) South Pateros unit, (3) Antoine Creek unit, (4) Howard Flat unit, (5) Brays Landing unit, (6) East unit, and (7) Moses Coulee unit. The units are several miles apart; their approximate areas are crosshatched on the general map (frontispiece). There are 10,852 acres of irrigable land in the division. _All would be irrigated by pumping from the Columbia River. Except for 730 acres of land in Moses Coulee, all division lands are located on terraces of the Columbia River. This report presents information on the extent and quality of division lands, the water requirements of the seven units and the supply available to them, engineering plans for development of the units and estimates of their costs, the economic justification of the division, and the financial feasibility of the development. THE GENERAL AREA The Columbia River, flowing in a southerly direction, drains the division area and forms the boundary between Chelan and Okanogan Counties on the west and Douglas County on the east. The river valley is rugged and marked by prominent relief. It is bounded on the west by high mountainous areas which are broken by tributary valleys. On the east, the high Waterville Plateau rises some 2,000 feet above the river level. The valley ranges from less than 1 mile to 3 miles in width. Orchards dot the narrow valleys of the Columbia and its larger tributaries. Terraces lie at several elevations on both sides of the rivers, and many of them are ideal for fruit production. In the division area, the terraces are most prominent between elevations 1,000 to 1,400 feet (400 to 700 feet above the river level). Those selected for irrigation range from 800 to over 1,400 feet in elevation. The higher terraces are large but widely scattered; the lower terraces (below 1,000 feet) are smaller but nearly continuous. The terraces consist of deep deposits of glacial outwash material and some glacial till which were left in the process of valley retrenchment following the glacial period. The deposits consist largely of coarse sand or gravel, and are very porous. A soil mantle of variable depth covers these coarse materials. The Methow River flows into the Columbia near Pateros, Wash., at the north end of the division area. Lake Chelan—the largest and . best known of the lakes in the area-is 55 miles long, one-half to 2 miles wide, and has a maximum depth of 1,489 feet. It narrows to a river channel and drops into the Columbia River near the town of Chelan. The Wenatchee River joins the Columbia near Wenatchee, Wash., the largest city of the area. Several smaller tributary streams drain the mountainous area to the west and the high pleateau to the One of the latter is Moses Creek, which flows through Moses Coulee at the south end of the division area. |