Oregon Public Broadcasting

Eastern Oregon farmers want to take water from rivers during the peak summer growing season.  But conservation groups say that’s when salmon need that water the most.  Now, lawmakers in Oregon have a compromise that could provide water for thirsty farmers and spawning salmon.  Correspondent Chris Lehman reports. Mike Wick knows how precious every drop of water can be. He’s the head of a Hermiston-based irrigation district.  So you might think he’d be alarmed at the sight of water spilling out of an irrigation ditch onto a field where nothing’s growing.  But he’s not upset.  Instead, he might be looking at the future of water storage in Oregon: Wick:  “The concept is really pretty straightforward.  You divert high winter flows off the Umatilla River, put it out into an area that’s going to recharge naturally, and the water will eventually percolate down through the soil into the aquifer.” In other words, they’re taking water out of the river and basically dumping it onto a meadow.  Some of it will make its way back to the river.  But some of it lingers underground and farmers can eventually use it to water their crops in the summer.  It’s an idea that’s working a little further east, along the Walla Walla River.  Hydrologist Bob Bower says farmers there were skeptical at first.  But four years later, the project is going strong.  And he says the farmers are on board because they can see the results with their own eyes:Bower:  “A lot of these guys grew up swimming in these creeks and springs that are now almost dry, so there was a lot of real interest in the agricultural community because we were actually addressing a water supply issue that they saw as a problem while helping to provide base flow back to the river for the salmon.” Keeping salmon happy was an important part of the agreement Oregon lawmakers crafted this session.  It’s a stripped-down version of a massive irrigation plan known as the Oregon Oasis Project.  That plan died in last year’s Legislature because of concerns that water would be drawn down in the summer when salmon need it to spawn. Oregon.

Governor Ted Kulongoski calls it an important first step.

Kulongoski:  “With global warming leading to less snowpack to refill aquifers around our state to give us the water we need for the summer months, water storage issues will become more and more challenging.”

Underground water storage has worked in other parts of the Northwest, but nobody knows if it’s going to work in the Umatilla Basin.  Lawmakers approved a $750 feasibility study in order to find out.  Irrigation manager Mike Wick says farmers will just have to be patient.

Wick:  “It’s hard when you’ve got folks who are right now restricted in pumping, and who’ve been restricted for several years, to realize and communicate to them that this is going to take some time, and they’re wanting answers right now and being able to realiize the benefits right now.  But it’s just not going to work that way.” Hermiston area farmer Lloyd Piercy knows he has to be patient.  But he wants to figure out what he’s going to be farming.  If he has water, then he grows things like onions and peas. If not, then he grows less profitable crops like wheat. Piercy supports the aquifer recharge plan, but he knows farmers like him are going to have to scrape along without new water for the foreseeable future.

Piercy: “We hope that the people that are involved in this understand how important it is to really move this process along, because the need is now and yesterday, not tomorrow. And the solution that we’re seeking is tomorrow and we don’t want that to be too far away.  We want it to be as soon as possible.”

Neighboring Washington state is two years into its water management plan.  Olympia lawmakers are pouring $200 million into a series of water storage and delivery projects along the Columbia River.