While Kachess is an alpine lake, the work group refers to it as a reservoir — existing for irrigation purposes only. This ignores tens of thousands of campers on the lake each year, hundreds of ...

Because of this, Revell said farmers are willing to pay for the $200 million drought pump project at Kachess Lake. It breaks down to roughly an additional $100 per acre of irrigated land, Revell said.

A pumping station at Lake Kachess would allow 200,000-acre feet of water to be pumped from the lake during drought. A four-mile tunnel would move water between Lake Keechelus and Lake Kachess.