By Dennis Box

The Courier-Herald

The Lake Tapps beat goes on.

Members of the Lake Tapps Task Force and government officials met Thursday at the Public Safety Meeting for an update on numerous subjects including the transfer of ownership of the lake and the drinking water rights.

Ed Schild, director of energy production and storage for Puget Sound Energy, and Mike Gagliardo, general manager of Cascade Water Alliance, reported the sale of the lake, the diversion dam, flume and mothballed hydroelectric plant to Cascade, is on track, but moving slower than originally anticipated.

"We've made a lot of progress," Gagliardo said. "But the devil is in the details. We have a lot of work to do, but it is moving ahead."

PSE announced the sale of the lake to Cascade, an eastside water purveyor, in April, expecting the deal to be signed in August. The parties now predict a time frame closer to the end of the year.

Cascade will pay $10 million prior to re-issuance of the water rights by the Department of Ecology and an additional $27 million once the rights are cleared.

The re-issuance of consumptive water rights to PSE by Ecology continues to move forward, according to Tom Loranger, regional director of water resources for the department.

Loranger said he expects a draft of the rights to be issued in October or November. He reported representatives from the Puyallup Tribe of Indians asked Ecology to delay issuing the draft because of a possible agreement with Cascade and the tribe.

"It's (the water rights draft) moving ahead," Loranger said. "We've done quite a lot of modeling and we expect a draft to be released very soon.

Another essential issue to members of the task force and community in general is the water flows moving into the lake.

According to Pierce County Councilman Shawn Bunney, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration took the opportunity to increase the flows rates from White River through the Buckley diversion dam into the lake when the dam was repaired in March.

NOAA increased the flows to protect salmon runs in the river. Chinook salmon are a protected species under the Endangered Species Act.

Flows rates are a major concern for task force members and community members.

Member Leon Stucki presented a series of flow-rate graphics illustrating the problems with sustaining the higher rates.

"In times of low water we would like to split the pain," Stucki said, "rather than for us to be wiped out."

Bunney said it was essential the decision on flow rates be negotiated for generations to come, protecting property rights and the fish.

Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@courierherald.com.