Now in the 11th hour of an eight-year, $8 million study, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, along with the states of Oregon and Washington, local officials and the farm community, have started working with congressional leaders and the Obama Administration to secure funding for a $300 million project that would guarantee a source of water to irrigate crops while leaving flows in the Walla Walla River for migrating salmon and steelhead.

The project, modeled after the successful Umatilla Basin Project, calls for delivery of Columbia River water to the Walla Walla basin in exchange for irrigators leaving an equal amount of water in the river that would support fish before returning to the Columbia River.

The same concept in the Umatilla River has protected the agricultural economy in the Hermiston area while providing sufficient flows for the return of thousands of spring chinook salmon that had been extinct from the river for more than 70 years.

The Walla Walla River basin is within the homeland of the confederated tribes. Mill Creek, located in the basin, is where the CTUIR's Treaty of 1855 was signed, which ceded to the United States 6.4 million acres of the tribes' lands, but also reserved tribal treaty rights, which include the tribes' right to fish at all usual and accustomed areas.

For nearly a century, the Walla Walla River near Milton-Freewater in northeastern Oregon, and at lower stretches in Washington, ran dry, prohibiting the restoration of salmon in what is considered pristine headwaters.

Gary James, the manager of the CTUIR Fisheries Program, said that with the additional flows from the Columbia River the Walla Walla basin could produce even more spring chinook than the Umatilla River.

Every year since 2000 when the tribes reintroduced 300 adult spring chinook to the upper Walla Walla River, returns have increased in record numbers. In 2009, nearly 800 spring chinook (600 adults and 167 jacks) returned. This represents the highest count since adults began returning in 2004.

"We annually release a few hundred adults and last year about a quarter million smolts from the Carson Hatchery and each year we break our own record for returns," James said. "It's kind of exciting. When we complete the localized Walla Walla spring chinook hatchery above Milton-Freewater with a half million smolts released annually we'll expect even better returns.

"Although some salmon reintroduction success has been realized from various local cooperative efforts, the larger flow project will be essential to annually meet total fishery and agricultural needs in the Walla Walla basin," James said.

The study, which was supposed to have been completed in 2007, looked at two basic options -- the Columbia River exchange and a new dam and reservoir at Pine Creek north of Weston. Additionally, the study identified a number of other complementary alternatives, including irrigation efficiencies, the purchase of water rights from willing sellers and an aquifer recharge. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will make the final decision, but the region's players are confident they will agree that the Columbia River exchange is the best alternative.

The CTUIR, as the main project sponsor, selected the Columbia River exchange as the preferred alternative with the support of Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, Walla Walla Basin irrigators and the region's elected officials.

Also on board are U.S. Reps. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, and Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, R-Washington, who represent constituents in the basin, which includes land in both states.

Walden and McMorris-Rogers have been asked to carry the basin's request for some $300 million to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to authorize construction of the project in the Water Resources Development Act.

The Water Resources Development Act requires that the sponsoring agent, which up to this point has been the Confederated Tribes, pony up 35 percent -- or more than $100 million -- for construction costs.

However, the CTUIR, while seeking sponsoring partnerships with the states, will argue that the federal government, because it has not lived up to the obligations outlined in the Treaty of 1855, should cover at least a major portion of that percentage.

"It is important for everyone to remember that when the tribes managed the basin we managed for the next seven generations," said N. Kathryn Brigham, secretary of the Confederated Tribes and a member of the CTUIR Fish & Wildlife Committee.

"This did not occur when non-Indians took over the management and that is why the river went dry for 100 years and salmon runs were destroyed or reduced so much they were put on the federal ESA list," Brigham said. "That is why CTUIR has taken the position that the federal agencies need to step up and help us protect the in-stream flows in the Walla Walla basin."

It is ironic that, said Rick George, manager of the tribes' Environmental Planning and Rights Protection Program, the treaty negotiated in 1855 required the United States to protect streamflows to protect the tribes' right to fish.

"As the trustee, the United States did not make good on that legal obligation," he said. Instead, the federal government did not intervene as Oregon and Washington issued water rights to non-Indian irrigators, nor in the early 1900s when each state "decreed" those water rights to farmers.

Over the ensuing decades, rights were issued for more water than was actually available in the rivers, which drained the river dry each summer and destroyed spring chinook salmon runs. On top of that the federal government subsidized channeling and diking on the mainstem Walla Walla River which added injury to hurt for a river already desiccated by overappropriation.

Brigham said the tribes have a legal right to fish in the Walla Walla River where they once harvested salmon.

"We have put a lot of work into the Walla Walla Basin to bring fish back to make this happen again," she said. "We and others know you cannot have fish without water, therefore in-stream flows are very important and need to be protected."

Proponents of the project say this is an opportunity for the United States to remedy a century-old violation of the treaty to help both fish and farms.

Ron Brown of E. Brown & Sons, and orchardist in the Milton-Freewater area and president of the Walla Walla Watershed Alliance, said the federal government needs to fund the project.

"I'm confident because we've built such a reputation for working together," he said. "It's a model for the rest of the United States to see how we've worked together."

The use of all the water in the river became an issue of political concern once bull trout were listed in 1998 and steelhead in 1999 as threatened species in the Walla Walla River under the Endangered Species Act.

In 2000, three irrigation districts pledged to keep a minimum water flow in the river and signed an agreement to this effect with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 2001, with 18 cubic feet per second of water left in the river, the Walla Walla did not run dry. This was the first time since irrigation began that the river did not run dry and biologists did not have to rescue fish stranded in potholes.

Brown said members of the Walla Walla Irrigation District are proud of the relationship they've forged with the Confederated Tribes over the last 10 years. Those efforts have seen a return of bull trout, steelhead and spring chinook salmon while keeping the agricultural economy viable.

"Saying that, it's really important that we move ahead with a bigger project that allows us to supplement the 30 percent we've put back in the river," Brown said. "As far as ag people, we feel it's a real necessity to make it better than what it is. We could probably do it now, but there will be drought years and it's important to get that additional water from the Columbia to supplement low flow years."