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February 2022
H2Oregon

In This Issue

  • Oregon Universities Water News
  • Year of Water News
  • Oregon Water Events
  • Oregon Water News

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Inst. for Water & Watersheds
Oregon State University
234 Strand Ag Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331-2208
Phone: 541-737-9918

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Oregon Universities Water News

While the climate crisis is a global issue that cannot be solved by any one person or entity alone, individuals can still take meaningful actions. At the time of year when we resolve to be better versions of ourselves, UO experts offer some suggestions for resolutions that individuals can adopt to counter climate change and help green up their lives, their communities, and the planet.

Each of these faculty members is affiliated with the UO’s Environment Initiative, which focuses the intellectual energy and work of faculty members, students and community partners on working toward a just and livable future through transdisciplinary research, teaching and experiential learning. It is one of the UO’s five Academic Initiatives that work across disciplines, developing the next generation of leaders and problem solvers.

Participate in your local watershed council
Jeremy Trombley
Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Earth Sciences


Jeremy Trombley“Councils host meetings and presentations as well as opportunities to help restore the landscape for fish and other species,” said Jeremy Trombley, an anthropologist who works with professor Dave Sutherland's Ice and Ocean Lab and professor Mark Carey's Glacier Lab researching how watershed communities are responding to climate change. He urges individuals to go beyond the first step by getting more involved and asking tougher questions. “How is your watershed affected by external social, economic and political pressures? How do these pressures keep your community from responding to climate change effectively? Finally, find out whose stolen land your watershed occupies and look to those Indigenous nations for guidance,” he said. “They are at the forefront of addressing climate change, and it's important that we pay attention and follow their lead when it comes to ensuring the long-term health and well-being of our watersheds and communities.”

In the Democratic primary for U.S. House District 4, the race is heating up, with four contenders so far filing to run. Each hopes to replace longtime congressman Peter DeFazio, a Springfield Democrat.

The News-Review interviewed all four. 

John Selker has two reasons for making his run for Congress. One of them is a problem with the way many lawmakers make their decisions, based on politics rather than data.

“My feeling is that the decisions made in Washington are often not informed by people who really get the numbers,” Selker said.

Selker’s commitment to numbers is informed by his scientific background. He has been an OSU professor of water resource engineering for 30 years, and is the president-elect of the American Geophysical Union’s Hydrology Section.

He has worked on water resource issues on five continents. He even worked on water resources for pear trees right here in Roseburg.

The second reason for Selker’s run for Congress is his mother. Lisa Selker, who died when John Selker was 12. She was a Holocaust survivor. Lisa Selker was a huge supporter of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, he said.
Year of Water News
Artist Dennis Cunningham, born in Medford, Oregon, on July 5, 1949, died on April 3 after a long illness, according to his niece, Marianne Love-Day. He raised the profile of block printing in the state both through his work and his teaching at Marylhurst University. He is survived by his sister Carol Baldridge, daughter Selena Cunningham-Delano, and nieces Love-Day and Amy Love-Bichsel.
Every year, the University of Oregon’s Common Reading program encourages campus-wide engagement with a shared book and related resources. JSMA’s corresponding Common Seeing expands this conversation through the visual arts. The 2021-22 selection, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, addresses humanity’s responsibility to the natural world through its author’s observations as an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, academically trained botanist, and mother. Kimmerer calls for a reciprocal relationship between people and nature that prioritizes generosity and respects the needs of all living things. Her memoir’s interwoven topics include ecology, parenting, Indigenous land and water rights, traditional foodways, good citizenship, sustainability, climate change, and the preservation of language. This year’s Common Seeing brings together works by nine contemporary Native artists that speak to these issues and each’s experiences as individuals and members of their communities. Featured artists include Natalie Ball (American, Black, Modoc and Klamath), Joe Feddersen (Colville Confederated Tribes), Bud Lane (Siletz), Joey Lavadour (Walla Walla/Métis), Brenda Mallory (Cherokee), Lillian Pitt (Warm Springs, Wasco, and Yakama), Gail Tremblay (Mi'kmaq and Onondaga), Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee), and Shirod Younker (Coquille, Coos, and Umpqua, b. 1972). JSMA is especially grateful to the Museum of Natural and Cultural History for lending work from their collection. For more information about the UO’s Common Reading and to find out how members of the UO Community can access a digital copy of Braiding Sweetgrass, visit https://fyp.uoregon.edu/common-reading-2021-2022-braiding-sweetgrass.
Oregon Water Events
Water Resources Graduate Program Seminars for Winter term
Click here to join via Zoom
Oregon Ground Water Association
Spring Technical Seminar

February 11-12, 2022
Wilsonville, Oregon 
Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC)
Virtual Conference
March 3 - March 6, 2022
The theme of this year’s PIELC is “A Different Normal.” The whole world has been shaken after nearly two years of a pandemic. While the world is itching to return to normalcy, we must take this opportunity to progress toward and embrace a different normal.

Panel Submission Form: 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd7ifvxqbhcIiy76odlF15QYU8CLxCiIQdi6VELrhEEkyhvlw/viewform
Pacific Northwest Ground Water Exposition 
March 18-19, 2022
Portland, OR
The Pacific Northwest Ground Water Exposition affords you the opportunity to: 
 
  • Increase your knowledge
  • View new equipment and products
  • Network with others in the industry.
Western Snow Conference
April 18–21, 2022
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT
The theme for the 2022 Western Snow Conference is "Drought, Fire, and Precipitation Extremes: Operational Challenges for Snow Water Resources"  however, all snow-related research in the context of measurements, modeling, and water supply are welcome. Keeping in line with the conference theme, related papers will be given priority.
The 11th International Symposium on Managed Aquifer Recharge
April 11 - 15, 2022
Long Beach, California
ISMAR11 includes a full day of pre-conference workshops, three days of technical sessions, plenary sessions, awards luncheon, field trips and great networking, socializing, and entertainment opportunities.

Check out the Preliminary Agenda now!
Oregon Water News
The Mid-Coast Water Planning Partnership announced Friday, Jan. 7, that a draft plan, The Mid-Coast Water Action Plan, is available for public review and comment. The announcement is a culmination of five years (2016 through 2021) of cooperative work by over 250 stakeholders to create a plan to balance future water needs in the Mid-Coast Basin (Cascade Head to Cape Perpetua).

This pilot program was guided and supported by Oregon’s Integrated Water Resources Strategy. The draft plan can be found on the Mid-Coast Water Planning Partnership website: https://www.midcoastwaterpartners.com/mcwpp-water-action-plan. 

The public is invited to review the draft and report back their level of support for the plan’s proposed actions. This information will help gauge community support for the draft and inform future updates to the plan. Specific proposed actions appear in the Implementation Table (pages 54-79). If you are not familiar with the Partnership or need a refresher, please read the Executive Summary (pages viii – 14) for context and explore the Partnership’s website for information. 
A federal court approved this month details on the “how” of fish passage, drawdowns and spill designed to aid salmon and steelhead passage at Willamette River dams, even as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is preparing a new environmental impact statement for the agency’s 13 Willamette Valley Project dams.

Although it has filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Corps already is complying with the U.S. District Court’s injunction for the interim actions that the agency is to initiate while it is completing the EIS and reinitiating consultation with NOAA Fisheries on a new biological opinion. A draft EIS is expected next fall. The Corps will not say when or whether it will act on the appeal.

U.S. District Court Judge Marco Hernandez approved several “Notice of the Expert Panel’s Response to Injunction Action” in December, all detailed descriptions of interim actions the Corps must take at many of its Willamette basin dams to protect threatened wild upper Willamette River spring chinook and winter steelhead.

The court-approved interim actions have been proposed by the expert panel, a group composed of plaintiff’s experts, two National Marine Fisheries Service biologists, two Corps employees, and two “ad hoc” federal experts. In his Sept. 1, 2021 final Opinion and Order, the judge charged the expert panel with drafting the implementation plans for each Willamette River sub-basin along with the details for each of the required interim actions and he set timelines for the expert panel to complete plans for the remaining actions. The original court case was first filed by conservation groups in 2018.
Tigard is moving forward with plans to design and construct a new 3 million-gallon reservoir and new waterlines and to replace a temporary pump station.

Earlier this month, the Tigard City Council awarded a $2.1 million contract to Emery & Sons to build what's known as Reservoir 18 and an accompanying pump station.

"Tigard must plan and construct capital improvements to serve our growing community," Rob Murchison, Tigard assistant public works director, said in a press release. "This undertaking will add critical components to our complex water delivery system, which allows the city's professionals to deliver clean drinking water from the river intake facility located on the Clackamas River to the homes and businesses throughout the Tigard Water Service Area."

The city will build the new reservoir at one of two sites located in western Tigard in the Bull Mountain Road area. One is in Sunrise Park, north of the intersection of Southwest 150th Avenue and Sunrise Lane. The other is the Cach Water Site, located on the west side of the 15100 block of Southwest Sunrise Lane.

A new pump station will be built, allowing the city to move water faster from 410-foot elevations to homeowners in the 560-foot elevation area.
Erland Suppah Jr. doesn’t trust what comes out of his faucet.

Each week, Suppah and his girlfriend haul a half-dozen large jugs of water from a distribution center run by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs to their apartment for everything from drinking to cooking to brushing their teeth for their family of five. It’s the only way they feel safe after countless boil-water notices and weekslong shutoffs on a reservation struggling with bursting pipes, failing pressure valves and a geriatric water treatment plant.

Now, there’s a glimmer of hope in the form of a massive infrastructure bill signed last month that White House officials say represents the largest single infusion of money into Indian Country. It includes $3.5 billion for the federal Indian Health Service, which provides health care to more than 2 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives, plus pots of money through other federal agencies for water projects.

Tribal leaders say the funding, while welcome, won’t make up for decades of neglect from the U.S. government, which has a responsibility to tribes under treaties and other acts to ensure access to clean water. A list of sanitation deficiencies kept by the Indian Health Service has more than 1,500 projects, including wells, septic systems, water storage tanks and pipelines. Some projects would address water contamination from uranium or arsenic.
Hiking in Oregon is a reward in and of itself; surrounded by immense beauty and sublime scenery, there’s little better than hitting the trails here in the Beaver State. Except hitting the trails to a hidden hot springs in Oregon, that is. Willow Creek Hot Springs is a hidden gem of a spot located in the high desert region of southeast Oregon. This little-known hot springs in Oregon is accessed via a 5.1-mile hike that’s rugged and wonderfully scenic, making for a delightful day trip adventure for intrepid explorers.
As part of our ongoing series, How Oregon Works, The Portland Business Journal sat down with various industry leaders to discuss workforce issues – everything from how employers can best keep diversity, equity and inclusion top of mind, to specific challenges that affect some of the most important sectors and organizations in our region.

In this short Q&A, we hear from David Filippi, partner at Stoel Rives LLP with expertise in the areas of water, fish and wildlife, and hydropower. He shares his perspective related to the consecutive years of drought conditions that Oregon has experienced and how businesses can take steps to protect their water rights, secure future water supplies, and evaluate what lies ahead.
The Oregon Supreme Court recently reversed a decision of the Oregon Court of Appeals and determined that the lease of a vested hydroelectric water right to the state for instream uses did not qualify as the “use of water under a hydroelectric water right” under Oregon Revised Statute 543A.305(3). WaterWatch v. Oregon Water Resources Department, 369 Or. 71 (2021) (hereafter referred to as Warm Springs Hydro, after intervenor respondent Warm Springs Hydro LLC). As a result of the decision, the hydroelectric water right will be subject to conversion to a permanent instream water right.

The case involved a hydroelectric water right on Rock Creek, a tributary to the Powder River. The water right was used to generate hydroelectric power at the Rock Creek project near Baker City until 1995, when the project was shut down. Beginning in 1995, the water right was temporarily leased instream under a series of instream water right leases and was not used for hydroelectric power generation. In 2015, WaterWatch petitioned the Oregon Water Resources Department challenging the Department’s approval of another instream lease renewal for the water right. WaterWatch argued the water right had converted to a permanent instream water right pursuant to ORS 543A.305(3) (the hydroelectric conversion statute). Additional analysis of the Court of Appeals’ decision is available here.
Getting water to Central Oregon farmers who need it most takes time and investment, mainly in the form of new pipelines that are replacing leaky canals. But irrigation districts are also coming up with innovative ways to share water around the Deschutes Basin.

The newest idea is a water bank pilot program, which will provide a cash payment to Central Oregon Irrigation District patrons who “volunteer not to use irrigation water for the 2022 irrigation season,” according to the Deschutes River Conservancy, which is facilitating the program. The unused water will be sent to North Unit Irrigation District, a junior water rights holder that has experienced limited water resources during the current drought. Once in the hands of North Unit, the water will be added to the district’s overall supply for the summer of 2022.

Mike Britton, executive manager for North Unit, said water marketing and transfers have not been used much in the Deschutes Basin, but he is eager to see how the program will work.

“We’re hopeful for enough water to make a difference and validate the marketing and transfer process,” said Britton in an email.
Storms have dumped nearly eight inches of precipitation in Medford since the beginning of October. But reservoirs around the Rogue Valley are at similar levels as they were in late summer 2021.

Emigrant and Hyatt lakes are each three percent full. Howard Prairie Lake is five percent full. These reservoirs make up the Talent Irrigation District, which supplies irrigation water to three thousand landowners, according to their website.

“I would expect it’s going to take a couple years at the least to get back to where we can maybe get the reservoirs up where they used to be,” says Wanda Derry, the interim manager for the Talent Irrigation District.

Derry says this December has seen more snow than the same time last year. Part of the reason the reservoirs are so low is because the new snowpack has not yet melted into water, but the meager water supply is a sign that it’s too soon to talk about the end of the drought.

“This last year was the worst year on record for us since our project was built,” Derry says. “This is uncharted territory for us for sure.”
Lisa Charpilloz-Hanson learns best out in the field, which is how the new director of the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board found herself, first month on the job, standing over a bridge in Tillamook watching salmon and steelhead swim upstream. In her new role, Charpilloz-Hanson now has a hand in how to spend $170 million each year for projects that improve fish and wildlife habitat across Oregon’s waterways. The money, issued in grants, comes from state lottery profits, the sale of salmon license plates and federal funding.

One of the board’s grants paid for the Tillamook bridge, which replaced a culvert that had blocked the fish from traveling freely. Charpilloz-Hanson wanted to see for herself what the dollars had made possible.

“Every time I see a project, and I am around the people that are doing the work, I can’t help but get excited,” she said.

Charpilloz-Hanson took the new job in November and leads a board of 18 drawn from state and federal natural resources agencies, tribes, conservation organizations and the public. They meet four times a year to decide on which watershed conservation and restoration projects to fund and to establish a long-term strategy for the health of Oregon’s rivers and streams.
In recent years, Flint’s water has become synonymous with environmental disaster. Portland’s water, meanwhile, is considered some of the most pristine in the nation, even though the city’s lead levels usually remain just below — and occasionally surpass — the federal safety limit of 15 parts per billion (or ppb). If test samples come back with lead levels higher than 15 ppb, the Environmental Protection Agency requires the utility to take action to reduce the amount of lead, such as updating old pipes or treating the water.

This past November, Portlanders got an urgent reminder that the city’s lead problem has persisted. Out of 104 homes sampled by the water bureau, 10 percent had lead levels higher than 21 parts per billion — the highest results the city has seen in two decades and well above the federal limit.

Two homes sampled had lead levels more than five times the EPA’s limit — 105 ppb and 81 ppb, according to a letter from the Oregon Health Authority obtained by OPB.

The water bureau says the homes most at risk for lead in the water are those with copper pipes joined with lead solder, which were generally built or plumbed between 1970 and 1985. That’s potentially up to 15,000 homes, according to the bureau. Twice a year, Portland will sample water from the highest risk homes — those built between 1983 and 1985.

Edwards, the Virginia Tech Professor, said Portland holds the distinction as the largest major city consistently displaying high concentrations of lead in their water samples for high-risk homes. He pins the blame on the Portland Water Bureau and an unusual arrangement struck decades ago with the state health authority.
Oregon by the numbers

– Population living near toxic release sites: 19.4%
— 17.4% of state’s white population
— 21.7% of state’s Hispanic population
— 16.4% of state’s Black population
— 21.6% of state’s Native American population
— 12.9% of state’s Asian population
— 16.5% of state’s Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander population
– Total number of sites: 281

Oregon was one of the cleanest states in 2020, ranking 50 out of 56 in toxin releases. The state’s highest contributing site, the Dyno Nobel St. Helens facility, emitted around 5.9 million pounds of toxins in 2020: the vast majority were released into the air and the rest into the water.
Power company PacifiCorp is pitching a pumped storage hydropower project in Lake County that, if built, could become a significant source of renewable energy in the region.

“Pumped hydro,” as it’s sometimes called, has garnered attention from clean energy advocates as part of the path to decarbonization.

The systems work like giant batteries. They typically involve two reservoirs, one at a higher elevation than the other. Water flows from the upper reservoir into the lower reservoir through hydroelectric turbines similar to those used on the Northwest’s many river dams, generating power.

PacifiCorp in October filed for a preliminary permit with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to study the feasibility of a pumped hydro project in the Crooked Creek area near Paisley.

The company has proposed building a 52-acre upper reservoir and 50-acre lower reservoir, powerhouse and pump station, plus a nearly 20-mile transmission line connecting the system to a substation in Lakeview.

The project would initially fill each reservoir by diverting water from the Chewaucan River via a new, 8.7-mile pipeline.
Oregon environmental regulators have fined the Port of Morrow $1.3 million for repeatedly over-applying agricultural wastewater on nearby farms in an area that already has elevated levels of nitrates in the groundwater.

The state Department of Environmental Quality announced the fine on Jan. 11.

Under a DEQ water quality permit, the port collects nitrogen-rich wastewater from food processors, storage facilities and data centers at its Boardman industrial park, which it then reuses to irrigate neighboring farm fields growing potatoes, onions and other high-value crops.

But according to the agency, the port violated its permit more than 1,000 times from 2018 to 2021, exceeding the limit on how much nitrogen can be safely applied to farmland and resulting in 165 tons of excess nitrogen in the fields.
Edited by Todd Jarvis
Copyright © 2021 Institute for Water and Watersheds, All rights reserved.


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Institute for Water and Watersheds - Oregon State University · 234 Strand Agricultural Hall · Oregon State University · Corvallis, Oregon 97331 · USA

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