June 29, 2018
CapitalPress.com
9
Farmers want to replace declining groundwater with Columbia River water
TREATY from Page 1
The stakes are enormous.
The Columbia Basin includes
15.4 million acres of farm-
land in Oregon and Washing-
ton that produce crops worth
$7.8 billion a year. The high-
est-producing farmland, near-
ly 1.7 million acres, is irrigat-
ed, according to the USDA
Census of Agriculture.
Kagele and other farmers
want to replace the declining
groundwater with Columbia
River water under the federal
Columbia Basin Project. Con-
gress in 1933 authorized 1.03
million acres of farmland in
the basin to receive Columbia
River water under the project.
Currently only about 671,000
acres receive the river water,
while the remainder depend
on wells that are now declin-
ing.
“If we ever want to get a
little more water out to the
Wikimedia Commons
farmers and shut the rest of
these wells off ... the treaty The Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in Washington state is one of the 28 dams included in the U.S.-Canada treaty.
has to make room for that,”
Kagele said.
Columbia
River Facts
• Average annual flow at Asto-
ria: 198 million acre-feet (the
fourth largest river in North
America by volume.)
• Length: 1,243 miles long
(12th longest in U.S.)
• Source: Columbia Lake,
British Columbia.
• Number of tributaries: More
than 60.
• Total water taken out for mu-
nicipal use: 433,418 acre-feet
per year in Washington state.
• Total water take out for agri-
culture: 10.1 million acre-feet
per year.
• Amount of power produced:
Combined, all of the dams
on the river and its tributaries
generated 29 gigawatts,
about 44 percent of the total
hydroelectric generation in
U.S. in 2012.
• Total number of known fish
and wildlife species: 609.
• Number of endangered fish
species: 13.
U.S. priorities
Work on updating the
treaty has been underway for
years. The Bonneville Pow-
er Administration and U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers
made regional recommenda-
tions in 2013 that were devel-
oped through consultations
with federal agencies, states,
Native American tribes and
other stakeholders.
“We are not in a position
to go into great detail on the
agenda or discuss U.S. nego-
tiating positions at this time,
but we continue to use the
2013 Regional Recommen-
dation as a guide,” said a U.S.
Department of State repre-
sentative for Western Hemi-
sphere Affairs, who spoke on
background.
She said key U.S. objec-
tives include:
• Continued, careful man-
agement of flood risk.
• Ensuring a reliable and
economical power supply.
• Better addressing the
ecosystem.
Maintaining navigation,
recreation, irrigation and mu-
nicipal and industrial use of
the river is vital to the econo-
my of the region, she said.
Three dams in British Co-
lumbia and one dam in Mon-
tana were built as a result of
the treaty, and 24 others fall
under the treaty’s purview.
Other dams along the Co-
lumbia and Snake rivers are
operated by the U.S. Corps of
Engineers, the Bureau of Rec-
lamation and individual utili-
ties and utility districts.
“There are no current dis-
cussions regarding the num-
ber of dams as part of the
modernization of the treaty
regime,” the spokeswoman
said.
Canada priorities
The treaty has provided
“extensive” benefits to both
Canada and the U.S., and is an
example of the strong bilateral
cooperation between the two
countries, said John Babcock,
spokesman for Global Affairs
Canada, which manages Can-
ada’s diplomatic relations and
promotes international trade.
“Canada is committed
to working with the U.S. to
Derek Sandison
Mike Schwisow
Tom Tebb
Kristin Meira
modernize the agreement and
to ensuring that it continues to
provide shared, equitable ben-
efits to both countries,” Bab-
cock said. “Canada has been
working closely with First
Nations and basin communi-
ties to identify opportunities
to further improve environ-
mental conditions in the Ca-
nadian portion of the basin.”
necessary for irrigation during
the summer, when flows are
lowest.
“If you don’t have water
now and you hope some day
that you will, it’s a very high
priority,” he said.
their homes and caused more
than 50 deaths, according to
the Army Corps and Bonne-
ville Power Administration.
The magnitude of the flood
added a sense of urgency to
the international discussions
of flood control between the
U.S. and Canada.
Under the treaty, the U.S.
depends on 8.95 million acre-
feet of assured water storage
behind Canadian dams to re-
duce spring runoff, said Der-
ek Sandison, director of the
Washington State Department
of Agriculture and former di-
rector of Ecology’s Columbia
River office.
That guarantee goes away
in 2024.
A new “called upon and
effective use” provision is
scheduled to kick in, meaning
that before asking Canadian
dam managers to store runoff,
the U.S. would need to make
use of all its dams and reser-
voirs for flood control. That
means reducing the water
level in U.S. reservoirs in an-
ticipation of storing the spring
runoff, Sandison said.
“It’s that whole notion
of really drawing down our
reservoirs and hoping we
get the March (runoff) fore-
cast right,” he said. If they’re
wrong, the river flow could be
too low to meet all water us-
ers’ needs.
“Predictability in river op-
erations is very important,” he
said. “The more we can get
back to a predictable arrange-
ment, the better for water sup-
ply.”
If and when the U.S. asks
for Canadian dams to store
spring runoff, the U.S. would
also have to pay, Sandison
said. At this point in the nego-
tiations it’s not clear how such
payments would be struc-
tured.
There must also at least be
a pathway to use additional
water supplies in non-treaty
reservoirs that have been built
by Canada beyond the current
terms of the treaty, Sandison
said.
Oregon and Washington
officials think such access is
possible, but know it won’t be
free, he said.
“Certainly we hold out
hope that could be possible,”
he said.
Irrigation
Tom Tebb, director of the
Office of the Columbia Riv-
er for the Washington State
Department of Ecology, es-
timates tens of thousands of
farmers and others use the
Columbia River.
More than 1 million acres
of farms and scores of com-
munities take water directly
from the river, Tebb said.
Cities that get their drink-
ing water from the river
include Revelstoke, B.C.;
Wenatchee,
Wash.;
the
Tri-Cities; The Dalles, Ore.;
Vancouver, Wash., and Port-
land.
Water for the entire Co-
lumbia Basin Project, about
6.4 million acre-feet, is re-
served in water rights, said
Mike Schwisow, director of
government relations for the
Columbia Basin Develop-
ment League.
However, the ability to
draw water from the river de-
pends on maintaining flows
necessary for fish populations
protected under the Endan-
gered Species Act, such as
salmon.
When further development
is possible, dams will need
to maintain flows for the riv-
er and still allow irrigation
projects to withdraw water,
Schwisow said.
Schwisow doesn’t expect
this to be a specific provision
of the treaty, but the league
hopes for enough flexibili-
ty to work with Canada and
provide the amount of water
‘It’s going to be tough
going, but we’ll be
able to get through’
KLAMATH from Page 1
Scott White, executive
director of the Klamath Wa-
ter Users Association, said it
has been a “crazy, crazy year”
but nothing in the latest op-
erations plan caught him by
surprise.
“It’s going to be tough go-
ing, but we’ll be able to get
through,” White said. “In a
drought year, that’s all you
can really ask for.”
The big question now,
White said, is whether the
Klamath Tribes win an in-
junction to hold more water
in Upper Klamath Lake to
protect endangered Lost Riv-
er and shortnose suckers.
The tribes sued the Bureau
of Reclamation, National
Marine Fisheries Service and
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice in May. A hearing sched-
uled for July 11 before Judge
William Orrick in San Fran-
cisco has since been resched-
uled for Friday, July 20. The
KWUA has also filed a mo-
tion seeking to have the case
dismissed, arguing it should
be heard in a different venue.
Tribal harvest of suckers
decreased from more than
10,000 to 687 between 1968
and 1985, and today just two
fish are harvested for cere-
monial purposes. But if the
injunction succeeds, White
said it would essentially shut
down the Klamath Project.
“All the dollars put into
the land thus far would be
wasted,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the
Bureau of Reclamation said
she cannot comment on pend-
ing litigation.
Navigation
More than 50 million tons
of wheat and other crops and
products valued at more than
$24 billion were barged or
transported by container ship
and bulk freighter on the Co-
lumbia-Snake river system in
2016, according to the Pacific
Northwest Waterways Associ-
ation.
The association’s execu-
tive director, Kristin Meira,
says she is comfortable with
the state department’s under-
standing of the river system
and what it means for U.S.
freight.
Thirty-four ports dot the
Columbia-Snake river sys-
tem, from Astoria, Ore., to
Lewiston, Idaho, Meira said.
The Snake River is a tributary
and not directly included in
the treaty, she said.
She hopes the treaty can
stand on its own, separate
from recent political tension
between President Donald
Trump and Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau.
“We are a region that is
known for working well to-
gether,” she said. “I hope this
continues to be the case when
it comes to the treaty, too. It’s
been a model for cross-bor-
der coordination for so many
years.”
Flood control
The treaty was original-
ly negotiated after a spring
flood in 1948 caused major
damage along the river from
Trail, B.C., to Vanport, Ore.
Vanport, one of the largest
cities in Oregon at the time,
was destroyed. The flood dis-
placed 30,000 people from
Electricity
The Columbia is the larg-
est
hydropower-producing
river in North America.
According to the Corps
and Bonneville Power Admin-
istration, treaty negotiators in
the early 1960s agreed that
the U.S. and Canada would
equally share downstream
power benefits, the increased
power generation in the U.S.
allowed by the additional
storage capacity of the three
dams built in Canada. The
benefits are calculated annual-
ly according to a complex for-
mula that uses the theoretical
value placed on the additional
generation of electricity made
possible by the Canadian
dams. Canada’s half is called
the Canadian Entitlement.
The Corps and BPA also
believe the Canadian Enti-
tlement has more than repaid
Canada’s cost of building the
three dams, they said in their
2013 review of the treaty.
Ecosystem
Native American tribes
and public comments have
demanded more attention to
the environment, said Tebb,
of Ecology’s Office of the Co-
lumbia River.
“We value aquatic resourc-
es and the salmon as much as
we value the farmer and the
agricultural economy and val-
ue our farmers bring to mar-
ket,” Tebb said.
Tebb pointed to a U.S.
district court order in 2016
to study new alternatives to
protect endangered fish and
address ongoing flow issues
in various tributaries.
“Everyone wants a piece
of this river, and we’re just
going to have to manage it
wisely and be thoughtful to all
of those interests,” he said.
It’s not yet clear how a fo-
cus on the ecosystem would
affect irrigation, navigation or
recreation, Sandison said.
Environmental advocates
want water flows increased
during salmon migration pe-
riods. They’re also worried
about water quality during
the summer when the flow is
lowest.
Impacts on agriculture de-
pend on how much water is
pushed out and when, Sandi-
son said.
“If you push out water in
the spring, it’s not there in the
summer or early fall,” when
it’s needed for irrigation, he
said.
The future
Kagele, the Odessa farmer,
took his first look June 20 at
construction work on the first
of at least eight pump stations
designed to help farmers draw
Columbia River water from
the East Low Canal. The EL
47.5 pump station is slated to
start operations in the spring
of 2020 and will serve five
farms.
Kagele has high hopes for
the completion of the Co-
lumbia Basin Project and, as
the Columbia River Treaty is
renegotiated, the continued
availability of the river’s wa-
ter for hundreds and hundreds
of other irrigators like him
across Washington state, Ore-
gon and Idaho.
But for him, the Columbia
River isn’t just about water.
It’s also about his family.
“I expect to be long gone
and six feet under by the time
this is all worked out, truthful-
ly,” said Kagele, who plans to
transfer the farm to his son in
the next few years. “As long
as we’re working towards that
goal, I’m a happy person. Do-
ing some good for my grand-
children and their children —
my goal has been met.”
Most of central Oregon is listed in moderate to severe drought
WILDFIRES from Page 1
Local ranchers, including Pechanec,
quickly banded together to protect their
homes and livestock, using their own
bulldozers and equipment to dig fire
breaks and evacuating cattle to safety
south of the inferno.
“All the ranches, we took pretty
much everything we had,” Pechanec
said. “It was really kind of heartfelt.”
Pechanec recalls how the flames
approached just 150 yards or so from
his home in Willowdale, about 12
miles north of Madras in rural Jef-
ferson County. With help from his
neighbors, they dug dozer lines and
performed a back burn to hold the
fire at bay.
Since the fires started, Pechan-
ec estimated 40-50 volunteers have
come from as far as Shaniko and An-
telope to lend a hand — most of them
local ranchers, friends and families
— along with professional firefight-
ers from the Bureau of Land Manage-
ment.
As of June 26, the Boxcar fire was
60 percent contained and the Jack
Knife fire was 80 percent contained.
Firefighters expect to have both fires
fully contained by July 6.
“We’re looking really good,”
Pechanec said. “I think we’re going
to be OK.”
The rangeland, however, could
take some time recover. Pechan-
ec said the fires have scorched all
12,000 acres of the ranch’s BLM
range, along with 2,500 to 3,000
acres of private grassland owned by
Robert Pamplin.
Without that land available to
graze, Pechanec said he will like-
ly have to turn to the hay pile while
doubling the rotation rate for his un-
burned pastures to avoid overgrazing.
Pechanec estimated he may lose up
to $30,000 this year on his hay costs,
and pastures where he would normal-
ly leave cattle for three weeks he will
instead rotate after a week and a half.
“Everybody has to be out in the
cattle, checking the rangeland and
checking the grass,” he said. “You’re
just going to have to make sure that
stubble doesn’t get down below 2 to
3 inches so we can have regrowth for
next year.”
Justin Rodgers, a rangeland man-
agement specialist for the BLM in
Prineville, said that, in general terms,
the agency allows for two years of
rest on burned land to allow time for
rehabilitation. Staff will work with
individual ranchers to accommodate
grazing needs and discuss appropri-
ate land management moving for-
ward.
“That’s the big thing there, just
getting the land back to pre-fire con-
ditions as best we can,” Rodgers
said. “It’s definitely a case-by-case
situation. Every range is in different
condition before the fire. Each land-
owner or permittee has different flex-
ibility or livestock grazing operations
going on.”
Meanwhile, Pechanec said it has
been two months since the last con-
siderable rainfall at the ranch, and
conditions remain bone dry.
“We are running tremendously
low on water and feed,” he said. “We
have no green left.”
Most of central Oregon is listed
in moderate to severe drought, ac-
cording to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Central and southern Oregon can ex-
pect above-normal potential for addi-
tional wildfires heading into July and
August, according to the National In-
teragency Fire Center.