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- 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
iww@oregonstate.edu
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Oregon Universities Water News
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The American Jobs Plan announced by President Biden draws attention to much-needed investment in clean water and natural infrastructure, as well as historic disinvestment in low-income and BIPOC communities.
Today in Oregon, our neighbors are experiencing water shortages or living with unsafe water in their homes and at work, missing work because of seasonal flooding and watching sacred ecosystems disappear.
Our community members care deeply about our shared water resources and have extensive knowledge and experience to contribute to achieving Oregon’s water resource goals, yet face significant barriers to participating in policy and infrastructure discussions like that underway now in Congress.
As partners in the Oregon Water Futures Project, last fall we collaboratively engaged more than 100 Oregonians from Native, Latinx, Black and various migrant communities across the state – including Indigenous Latin American, Caribbean, Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, Arab, Pacific Islander and Somali communities – in conversations about the future of Oregon's water resources and culturally-specific resiliency in the face of water challenges.
The Oregon Water Futures Project is a collaboration between water and environmental justice interests to lift up what water justice means to Oregonians on the frontlines of our water challenges through community conversations and partnerships. A report on recent community interviews is forthcoming.
Alaí Reyes-Santos is a professor of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies and Conflict Resolution at the University of Oregon. She is a collaborator of the Oregon Water Futures Project.
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A bi-monthly newsletter about the people and activities of the USGS-PSU Partnership, water science in Oregon, and related topics.
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A stark red blotch on the U.S. Drought Monitor map spreads outward from the intersection of Klamath, Lake and Deschutes counties, marking the quarter of Oregon that’s experiencing “extreme” and “exceptional” drought. Even the damp forests and fertile farmlands of the Willamette Valley are cloaked in the orange of “severe” drought.
We use many words to describe drought and its intensity, but what drought actually means — and what it means for us — can be difficult for people whose brains don’t think in acre-feet.
So OPB asked a few experts to help make sense of what’s shaping up to be one of the worst drought years in state history.
What is drought?
Simply put, drought is a water shortage. It’s typically the result of long periods with insufficient precipitation.
“It can have many manifestations, but in its simplest form, that’s what it is,” said Larry O’Neill, Oregon’s state climatologist and an associate professor at Oregon State University.
We measure drought based on historical expectations or norms.
What isn’t drought?
Drought takes months to form and months — sometimes longer — to recover from, so it isn’t over just because it rains once.
Oregon historically had well-defined wet seasons and dry seasons. Rain soaks the state, mostly the west side, through fall, winter and spring. Meanwhile, snow accumulates in higher elevations to form snowpack, which is sort of like our savings account to draw down during the dry summer.
The ideal, especially on the east side, is for that snowpack to melt slowly and evenly throughout the summer until the next wet season arrives.
Part of the trouble this year is a lot of the state is coming off a drought last year, which means we’re operating at a deficit. Soils are that much drier; groundwater and reservoir levels are that much lower.
“We’re really dependent on this wet season that we’re now leaving to recover some of that moisture that we didn’t get last year,” O’Neill said. “And it didn’t happen.”
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TWISTED - The Power of a Parasite, which follows ecologists exploring the causes and consequences of frog deformities in the Western US.
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In the last 12 years, Oregon has received $7.7 billion in Federal Aid for water-related projects (both grants and loans) spread across 240 different funding programs. Those programs fund water via research, capital improvement projects, investments in farm, forest, and watershed conservation, data collection and monitoring, education and information, and technical assistance.
This report is designed to help answer several questions that could help Oregon secure additional funding for its water infrastructure:
- Which federal programs are important to funding Oregon’s water resources?
- Which federal water programs might be underutilized in Oregon?
- What actions might the State of Oregon, regional federal partners, and water stakeholders take to increase the amount of federal water investment in Oregon?
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Wednesday, June 2, 2021 from 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM
Please join the Water Treatment Committee as we host a series of presentations focused on water treatment and forest fires. This workshop will include presentations from researchers, health authorities, and several Oregon case studies following the 2021 wildfire season. There will be (5) presentations with Q&A sessions.
Register to participate here.
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On March 4, 2021, the Oregon Senate confirmed Julie Smitherman’s first-term appointment to the Oregon Water Resources Commission to represent the Southwest Region. The Commission is a seven-member citizen panel that sets statewide water resources policy and oversees the work of the Water Resources Department. Commission members are unpaid volunteers that serve four-year terms. Members are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Oregon Senate.
The State of Oregon is also seeking individuals interested in joining the Commission. Five commission members each represent one of the regional river basins, and two members represent a portion of the state in an “at-large” capacity. Current Commissioners representing the Northwest Region and the Eastern Region will be completing the maximum terms allowed by Oregon law. Interested persons are encouraged to submit their completed applications to the Governor’s Office as soon as possible.
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The effects of a dry winter across southern and eastern Oregon are now carrying over into the spring and with no significant rain in the forecast, farmers will need to rely on groundwater this season.
"We're coming off of record low inflows in a lake that is a lot lower than it should be for this time of year and a second-year drought. With the current hydrology, there just isn't enough water to meet anybody's needs for that matter," Deputy Director for the Klamath Water Users Association Mark Johnson said. "We're in a very difficult situation."
The Klamath Water Users Association will not be releasing water through their primary canal this summer due to the deepening drought conditions and the need for water in Upper Klamath Lake.
The canal, known as 'A-Canal' feeds off of the Upper Klamath Lake, supplying water to farmers in southern Klamath County in Oregon as well as Modoc and Siskiyou Counties in California will be closed this year to prevent environmental harm to threatened and endangered fish.
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The September 2020 wildfires damaged many public and private water systems across Oregon. The Potable Water Resources Task Force, part of Oregon’s state-led wildfire recovery efforts, has launched a survey to learn how the 2020 wildfires have impacted private drinking water wells and systems that divert surface water from streams or reservoirs. This information will be used to help the state better support impacted Oregonians while also helping to inform statewide recovery efforts.
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A particularly dry winter and spring is leading to low water levels in the Willamette River and, by extension, all the tributaries and reservoirs dotting the Mid-Willamette Valley. That means impacts to Oregon’s recreation opportunities and possibly larger impacts on water quality and wildlife such as fish.
“This is a significant year because we’re talking about low water levels,” said John Morgan, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). “We’ve had low water levels in the past and it’s obviously affected recreation, but we also need to meet our flow targets and some other obligations.”
Those other obligations are big ones, pertaining to regulating the flow of water in rivers and tributaries to support fish populations and keeping water temperature at acceptable levels for ecosystems to thrive. Water levels in reservoirs also have a direct relationship to flood hazards along riverbanks.
To support all these activities, reservoirs are usually drawn down in the winter to allow for capturing excess water during rainy fall seasons or for mitigating flood levels by capturing this excess water. But that means that, when refill season comes along in February or March, the only way to get those reservoirs back up to full is with the rainy springs that Oregon is used to.
This year has failed to provide that, leading to low water levels at dams all over the Willamette River Basin. Even large amounts of snowpack thanks to winter storms doesn’t help as much as good old-fashioned rain does.
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For several years, Ben Vitale helped companies monetize their reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions when he worked at the Climate Trust. As president of the Portland carbon asset manager between 2009 and 2013, he managed a $20 million portfolio of carbon-emission reduction projects.
He has now turned his hand to helping companies reduce consumption of a natural resource that is becoming scarcer as the climate changes: water. His new company, Resilient Infrastructure Group, founded in 2019, provides private and public organizations with on-site treatment solutions that aim to recycle wastewater and even monetize emissions from sewage.
Resilient targets organizations that are heavy water users and that spend large amounts of money and energy having water treated by municipalities. Treating wastewater is energy intensive, comprising an estimated 10% of total energy use.
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Last week, the U.S. Senate passed a water infrastructure package that includes legislation by U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley to improve water quality and services for tribal communities in Oregon and nationwide. The Wyden and Merkley provisions passed April 29 will authorize $250 million for tribal water infrastructure projects and will make sure that Native American tribes most in need will be prioritized.
"Water is a human right; it should be guaranteed. Native American tribes like The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and others nationally that are facing drinking water crises deserve urgent action, and today the Senate delivered," Wyden said. "I'm not going to stop until this legislation is in black letter law and until the Warm Springs reservation is free from boil water notices and have no questions about the quality of their drinking water."
"The crisis at the Warm Springs Reservation is a powerful example of how the coronavirus crisis has made existing water infrastructure challenges even more serious," said Merkley, who serves as the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees funding for both water infrastructure and for tribal programs.
"It is critically important that we help support tribal nations in providing reliable access to drinking water, by boosting funding to replace aging water treatment facilities and fix outdated pipe systems plagued with pressure relief valve failures and bursting pipes," Merkley continued. "Our effort to make sure that everyone can turn on the tap and get safe water is gaining momentum, and I look forward to the Western Tribal Water Infrastructure Act making it to President Biden's desk to be signed into law."
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Even in years of drought and low water supplies, Phil Fine, a Jefferson County farmer, usually has something positive to say about the upcoming growing season. But so far this year even Fine struggles to identify any silver linings for his farming community.
“I am the eternal optimist, but this year is probably worse than last year,” said Fine, who grows carrot seed, bluegrass seed, alfalfa, and wheat.
“We have less water, and we are just as dry if not drier. Then the temperatures came up, and we got tons of wind, that just dries everything out. It’s going to be a tough summer.”
Drought, weak snowpack, and water rationing are creating challenges again for farmers in North Unit Irrigation District, which serves Jefferson County. This year marks the fourth straight season of water rations that force farmers to fallow large chunks of their land.
Fine said farmers are fallowing 30% to 60% of their property this year in order to have enough water for their remaining crops.
“We are getting by, but that is as good as it’s going to get this year. A foot of water in this country is not nearly enough,” said Fine, referring to the 1-acre-foot of water that North Unit farmers are allotted due to the rations.
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Ochoco Irrigation District is preparing for a tough water year.
A drought has persisted in Crook County, and the mountain snowpack and subsequent runoff is not expected to provide much water to fill reservoirs that had been drying up since last year.
"Unfortunately, we don't have a whole lot of water to spread around," said OID Manager Bruce Scanlon. "It's going to be a tough year. All indicators are that we will have a similarly low runoff compared to last year."
Last year, the mountain snowpack started out promising, but winter and spring weather was low on precipitation, and when the snow began to melt, much of the runoff was soaked into the dried-out landscape. Fortunately for OID, they started that year with much more water in the reservoirs and were able to rely on those stores as the summer progressed.
This year, the reservoirs are much lower, especially Ochoco Reservoir, which is only at 10,600 acre-feet.
"Over 5,000 of that is dead pool," Scanlon said. "We would have to pump it out if we wanted to get access to it."
Prineville Reservoir, at about 86,000 acre-feet, is in better shape, but it is still well below a number that would make OID leaders comfortable going into irrigation season. So, OID customers will likely face a more restricted water allocation than the previous year.
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Drought plagues much of the West, but officials predict abundant water supplies this year for Pacific Northwest irrigators who rely on the Columbia River System.
That’s good news for thousands of U.S. farms that rely on drainage from the Columbia River watershed, spanning Oregon, Washington, Idaho, western Montana and small portions of Wyoming, Utah and Nevada.
The Columbia — the Pacific Northwest’s largest river — begins in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, zigzags into Washington state, turns west into Oregon and finally empties into the Pacific Ocean. The river’s largest tributary is the Snake River, which crosses Idaho.
The recent positive forecast comes after a winter of heavy snowpack in British Columbia.
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A judge has ruled against the Klamath Tribes in a lawsuit that accuses federal regulators of violating the Endangered Species Act by letting water levels fall too low for sucker fish to spawn in a lake that also feeds an elaborate irrigation system along the Oregon-California border.
The ruling, reported Friday by the Herald and News in Klamath Falls, comes as the region confronts one of the driest years in memory. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation last month announced that farmers who irrigate from its Klamath Project water-management area will get so little water that farming may not even be worthwhile this summer.
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For the second year in a row, Jefferson County Commissioners have asked the governor to declare a drought emergency for the county.
Governors granted Jefferson County this relief eight times in the past 30 years.
Wickiup Reservoir, the source of the county's water, had its lowest peak this year since it began operating 72 years ago.
The U.S. drought monitor places much of Jefferson County in severe drought status.
Many areas of the county received less than a quarter of average precipitation in March.
Making matters worse, the extended forecast calls for higher than normal temperatures and lower than average precipitation.
These drought conditions pose hardships for farmers and ranchers and sets up conditions for a severe wildfire season.
A governor's emergency declaration makes more resources available to the people in the county hurt by the dry conditions.
Nine other counties have also requested drought emergency declarations this year: Jackson, Klamath, Lake, Baker, Douglas, Gilliam, Morrow, Umatilla and Wheeler.
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