Yakama Nation mulls Wapato dam updates to save fish and aid farms

Yakama Nation mulls Wapato dam updates to save fish and aid farms

This article originally appeared in the Yakima Herald-Republic.Water rushes into the headgates of the 107-year-old Wapato Diversion Dam on the Yakima River, south of Union Gap. With it go fish. The dam pulls in water, up to 2,200 cubic feet per second, for the Wapato Irrigation Project, the largest irrigation project in the Yakima basin. It supplies water to 140,000 acres on the Yakama Reservation, including some key projects that the Yakama Nat…