Friday, September 17, 2021
CapitalPress.com 9
Central Oregon farmers propose facility that could solve water shortages
By MICHAEL KOHN
EO Media Group
BEND, Ore. — Jeff er-
son County farmers are in
the midst of a crisis. Climate
change, drought and tighter
environmental regulations
have combined to create big
hurdles to profi table farm-
ing. Josh Bailey thinks he
has a solution.
Bailey, the manager for
North Unit Irrigation Dis-
trict, which supplies water
to Jeff erson County farm-
ers, said the farming com-
munity’s water woes can be
solved by pumping water
out of Lake Billy Chinook.
It sounds like a simple solu-
tion and it’s not a new idea
but costs have always been
prohibitive.
Startup costs to construct
the facility could reach $350
million to $400 million, said
Bailey, with the funds to
pay for it sourced possibly
from an infrastructure bill,
drought relief bills or grants.
Then the annual power
bill could be $6 million to
$12 million, a challenge for
a district that has an annual
budget of $6 million.
Mike Britton, North
Unit’s executive manager,
said the district could seek
“project power” from the
U.S. Bureau of Reclama-
tion, the federal water man-
agement agency for the
Western states.
“That would be power
supplies under the USBR or
other federal agency but pro-
vided by Bonneville Power
Administration, for exam-
ple,” said Britton. “There
are various options as to the
supply of power and or the
off set of power. Power in my
mind is the biggest nugget
to crack with regard to the
project at this time, power
supply and power costs.”
Britton said North Unit
will still need to pay for the
power, but if supplied by the
BPA it would be at whole-
sale or below wholesale
rates. While the payments
could still be a challenge,
he sees an opportunity with
federal funding.
“I am a little more opti-
mistic than I was in the
Josh Bailey/Submitted
A view of the area where North Unit Irrigation District, which supplies water to Jeff erson County, Ore., farmers, would
like to build a pumping station that would take water from Lake Billy Chinook for the region’s irrigation needs.
beginning just because of the
reception so far and also the
amount of federal funding
that may become available
either through the Bureau
of Reclamation or an infra-
structure package or other
means,” said Britton. “It
seems there is going to be a
lot of money that the federal
government will make avail-
able to folks, and we want to
take advantage of the oppor-
tunity while it’s here.”
Recognizing that getting
help for funding the power
will be an uphill battle,
North Unit has employed
the services of Ferguson
Group, a Washington, D.C,
lobbying group.
It’s a tall order, but if
the scheme works, Bailey
believes Jeff erson County
farmers will see huge ben-
efi ts. He was reluctant to
give a timeframe but said
that “within 10 years” 90%
of the district’s water prob-
lems can be resolved if the
pumping station moves for-
ward and water conserva-
tion projects elsewhere in
the Deschutes Basin also
proceed as planned. Those
mainly include Central Ore-
gon Irrigation District’s
canal-to-pipe
conversion
projects.
“If we can get (power)
we’d be looking really
good,” said Bailey. “It
would bring a sustainable,
long-term source of water to
our district.”
Sustainable and long-
Ben Lonergan/EO Media Group
The East Project irrigation system pump station along
the Columbia River near Umatilla, Ore. A similar facility
is proposed to pump water from Lake Billy Chinook to
help Jeff erson County, Ore., farmers.
term solutions are critical for
a junior water rights holder
like North Unit, which has
been chronically short of
water for several years run-
ning. Farmers around Jef-
ferson County have tried
to adapt by investing in the
most modern and effi cient
sprinkler systems, but each
year the water rations see
additional cuts.
For North Unit farmer
Richard Macy, the Lake
Billy Chinook pumping
project can’t come soon
enough.
“Funding, permits, engi-
neering, and location will
need to happen fast if the
NUID patrons hope to sur-
vive,” said Macy.
Johanna Symons, another
North Unit farmer, said
the project will not only
help farmers tap into a new
source of water, but will
also help the district com-
ply with environmental
rules and regulations. More
water will be available for
the Crooked and Deschutes
rivers, she said, improving
habitat for threatened fi sh
and frogs. But Symons has
doubts that the district will
be able to secure enough
federal funding to make it
happen.
“Farmers can’t even get
disaster relief from the gov-
ernment at a much lower
amount of money,” said
Symons. “How in the world
are we going to acquire
$400 million to $500 mil-
lion to get this done?”
The good news for farm-
ers is that if funding can be
secured, other requirements
are relatively easy to navi-
gate, said Bailey.
“The other agencies
say it’s more or less a slam
dunk,” he said.
Tod Heisler, director
of the rivers conservation
program at Central Ore-
gon LandWatch, agrees
that the project could help
meet farmer’s needs and
is also benefi cial from an
environmental standpoint,
as it lowers North Unit’s
demand on Wickiup Reser-
voir for water. It’s not com-
pletely bulletproof, he said,
as environmentalists may
worry about impacts down-
stream from Lake Billy
Chinook.
“Pumping from Lake
Billy Chinook may draw
fi re from those who feel it
adversely aff ects the Lower
Deschutes too much, but
I think it may be a reason-
able trade-off as long as
the Upper Deschutes gets
the permanent protection it
so desperately needs,” said
Heisler.
From a logistical point
of view, the pump station
on Lake Billy Chinook
would eff ectively replace a
similar station that already
exists on the Crooked
River, where North Unit has
a water right for 200 cubic
feet per second, per day. In
drought years it’s not possi-
ble for North Unit to pump
that much water from the
river, but pumping from
the lake would be possible.
Bailey said the new
station will be designed
to pump 400 cfs in case
North Unit is able to nego-
tiate an agreement to pur-
chase water from the Con-
federated Tribes of Warm
Springs, which has a 200
cfs water right at Lake
Billy Chinook.
Pumping water would
not impact the level of
the lake, said Bailey, as
the water fl owing into
Billy Chinook from the
Deschutes, Metolius, and
Crooked rivers would more
than compensate for the
pumped water.
The impact for farmers
would be significant, said
Bailey. As an example, he
said if the pump station
existed today, North Unit
farmers would be getting
1½ acre-feet of water this
year. Without the station,
they are getting just 0.8
of an acre foot of water.
An acre-foot of water is
the amount of water to
cover 1 acre with 1 foot
of water.
“It would be consistent
water, and you wouldn’t
have to shut off . If we had
that this year, we wouldn’t
be in the situation we have
right now,” said Bailey.
In addition to provid-
ing more water for farm-
ers, Bailey said the project
will also help aquatic con-
ditions on the Crooked and
Deschutes rivers, improv-
ing habitat for fi sh and other
aquatic wildlife.
The plan basically col-
lects water at the end of
its journey, instead of the
beginning, off ering benefi ts
to wildlife upstream. That
makes more sense com-
pared to the current system
of gravity-reliant canals
which were developed more
than a century ago, long
before modern-day pumps.
“This is massive, abso-
lutely massive,” said Bailey.
“We are doing everything
we can to push this project
forward as fast as we can.”
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