WRIA 30 - Klickitat County Home

Klickitat River BasinWatershed Management Plan2.7.2 WATER USEEstimates of actual water use are important for comparison against appropriated ("paper") waterrights and for developing a preliminary water budget for WRIA 30. Typically, actual water usewill be lower than water right appropriations because recorded water rights may be inactive ordevelopment of the allocated resources may be constrained by a variety of factors. With theexception of the larger purveyors, water use has historically not been metered, although this ischanging with promulgation of a metering rule (Chapter 173-173 Washington AdministrativeCode (WAC)) by Ecology. Therefore, preliminary estimates of actual water use were based onavailable information and numerous assumptions.Irrigation represents the overwhelming majority (approximately 92 percent) of the total water usein WRIA 30, which is consistent with the results of the water rights analysis (Table 5).Residential (including exempt wells) and non-residential uses comprise roughly seven and onepercent of the total water use, respectively.Table 5. Estimated Total Water Use for WRIA 30 by Subbasin in 2003 1Estimated Water Use (Acre -Feet/Year) by CategoryPWS- Self-Supplied Supplied PWS Non-Irrigation Residential Residential ResidentialSubbasintotalsSubbasinMiddle Klickitat 13,895 154 13 10 14,072Little Klickitat 9,788 750 477 400 11,415Swale Creek 5,729 3 19 0.1 5,751Lower Klickitat 0 111 307 26 444Columbia Tributaries 48 358 56 34 496WRIA 30 Totals: 29,459 1,376 871 471 32,177% of Total WRIA 30 Use: 92% 4% 3% 1% 100%1 Estimated use in the Little Klickitat Subbasin does not reflect the water use of the new Goldendale energy plant(see text)2.7.3 FUTURE DEMANDFuture demand is influenced by expected change in population, expected change inindustrial/commercial uses, and expected change in existing water uses. At present, residentialand non-residential water use comprise only eight percent of the total water used in the WRIA.This includes water use by self-supplied users. Irrigation uses consume 92 percent of the waterused.There is currently little or no human population growth in Klickitat County. For the foreseeablefuture, water consumption for residential use is likely to continue to be nominal relative toirrigation use.At present, water consumed by commercial/industrial uses is only one percent of the totalvolume used in the WRIA. A new energy plant has recently gone online in Goldendale. TheExisting Conditions 21 May 3, 2005