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The Alpine Lakes Wilderness Needs Your Help!

On May 31, Chelan County and the Washington State Department of Ecology announced the release of the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (DPEIS) for the "Icicle Creek Watershed Water Resources Management Strategy." The DPEIS presents five action alternatives, the worst of which seek to enlarge and/or construct dams and related structures and to manipulate water levels on seven lakes within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in Washington. Public comments are due July 30.

Dam construction and maintenance would harm the area’s wilderness character, and these proposed projects would set a bad precedent for our entire National Wilderness Preservation System.   The Colchuck, Eightmile, Upper and Lower Snow, Nada, Lower Klonaqua, and Square lakes, and the Eightmile, French, Icicle, Klonaqua, Leland, Mountaineer, Prospect, and Snow creeks could all be negatively impacted.

Alternative 5 in the DPEIS is best. It includes the “Full IPID Pump Station,” which would move Icicle Peshastin Irrigation District’s (IPID) point of diversion downstream to the Wenatchee River, and greatly improve flows in Icicle Creek without building bigger dams in the Wilderness, especially in future decades when climate change will reduce flows in the Icicle watershed.

However, the DPEIS repeatedly ignores protections of the Wilderness Act as well as requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). It incorrectly assumes IPID’s easements supersede the Wilderness Act, and it also fails to fully analyze limitations on the scope and validity of IPID’s water rights, which would limit several proposals.

The DPEIS also ignores negative impacts to riparian ecosystems in the Wilderness from proposed off-season releases of water from lakes, which alters stream hydrology. 

The DPEIS should be revised to address the above deficiencies, and then released for public comment.

Please help protect the Alpine Lakes Wilderness by opposing the DPEIS as it currently stands!

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The Alpine Lakes Wilderness in Washington Needs Your Help!

Chelan County Natural Resource Department

Subject: RE: "Icicle Creek Watershed Water Resources Management Strategy."

Message:

The DPEIS should be revised to address the following deficiencies and a revised Draft PEIS should be released for public comment:

The Alpine Lakes Wilderness is federal public land that belongs equally to all Americans. As such, it's a shared natural resource that must be respected and protected. The national interest in preserving its wilderness character must be protected.

The DPEIS fails to meaningfully consider fundamental legal issues that will determine which proposals can and cannot be built, including federal wilderness law and state water law. The DPEIS assumes Icicle Peshastin Irrigation District's (IPID) easements supersede federal wilderness law, which is wrong. The DPEIS also fails to fully analyze limitations on the scope and validity of IPID's water rights, which would limit several proposals.

Alternative 4 is the worst. It includes drilling a tunnel between two lakes (Upper and Lower Klonaqua Lakes); building a higher dam at Upper Snow Lake (enlarging that lake); and a higher-than-ever dam at Eightmile Lake (making that lake bigger than it has ever been). All of these lakes are inside the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The DPEIS analysis of these proposals is grossly inadequate. IPID has no right to enlarge Eightmile Lake, and has never had any water rights at Upper Klonaqua Lake.

Alternative 5 is best. It includes the "Full IPID Pump Station," which would move IPID's point of diversion downstream to the Wenatchee River, and greatly improve flows in Icicle Creek without building bigger dams in the Wilderness, especially in future decades when climate change will reduce flows in the Icicle watershed.

IPID's water rights were granted for the designated purpose of irrigation. The DPEIS proposes to use IPID water for other purposes, such as the fish hatchery and domestic use in Leavenworth, but IPID has no right to use water for these additional purposes.

For new storage, "restoration" storage and "optimization" projects, the timelines and estimated costs stated in the DPEIS are highly suspect, because the DPEIS fails to account for the fact that these lakes are on National Forest lands inside the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The DPEIS repeatedly ignores protections of the Wilderness Act. It repeatedly ignores the land management role and authority of the U.S. Forest Service on these National Forest lands. It repeatedly ignores the fact that major federal actions require analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) is not NEPA. The true costs of Alternatives 1, 2 and 4 are likely much higher than the DPEIS estimates, and closer to the cost of Alternative 5.

The DPEIS repeatedly ignores the negative impacts on the riparian ecosystems in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness from the proposed off-season releases of water from lakes, which alters stream hydrology.

Thank you.

Remaining:

The Alpine Lakes Wilderness in Washington Needs Your Help!

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