The Walla Walla watershed supports critical farming, endangered species habitat and tourism in both Washington and Oregon. Yet more people have legal rights to the water than actual water exists. In the early 2000s, faced with legal issues from federal regulators about endangered fish, people in Washington began working together on water conservation. This led to the development of a new management model. The Walla Walla Watershed Management Partnership was created in 2009. This 10-year pilot allowed a locally focused, collaborative approach to managing the Washington side of the watershed. The statute allowed it to operate without the Department of Ecology’s usual regulatory oversight.
The pilot was scheduled to sunset in 2019, but the Legislature extended it to 2021. This allowed time for financial and performance audits. It also gave participants time to determine how best to manage water in the region going forward. We designed this performance audit to assess the success of the water management pilot’s efforts over its 10-year tenure.
Read a two-page summary of this report.