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Friday, March 4, 2022
Volume 95, Number 9
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WHAT’S UP WITH WATER IN THE WEST?
Q&A WITH WESTERN WATER OFFICIALS
Reclamation offi cials talk
dams, Klamath Basin,
hydropower, drought
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
T
he U.S. Bureau of Reclamation — the fed-
eral agency that oversees water resource
management in 17 Western states — has big
projects planned in both its Columbia-Pa-
cifi c Northwest Region and its California
Great Basin Region.
To get a bird’s-eye view, Capital Press reporter Sierra
Dawn McClain talked with offi cials from the two regions
about plans surrounding dams, hydropower, drought and
the Klamath Basin. The text has been edited for length
and clarity.
Columbia-Pacifi c Northwest Region
Columbia River Basin, Idaho, Washington and parts of
Montana, Oregon and Wyoming
For a preview on upcoming projects in
the Columbia-Pacifi c Northwest Region,
the Capital Press interviewed Michael
Coff ey, the region’s public aff airs offi cer.
Capital Press: What specifi c proj-
ects does Reclamation have planned
for the region to increase water stor-
Michael
age capacity in the near future?
Coff ey
Coff ey: I’ll call out two in Idaho fi rst.
One is the Anderson Ranch Dam
Raise in the Boise River Basin. We’re collaborating with
Idaho Water Resources Board on that project. We’re look-
ing at raising the dam for an additional 29,000 acre-feet of
new water storage. That’s huge for farmers.
Then there’s the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer Recharge.
We’ve been working with the Idaho Department of Water
Resources on that. To date since 2015, we’ve recharged
about 1.8 million acre-feet of water into the aquifer, and
we’ll continue each year to improve those water levels.
In Washington, we’ve got something called the Yakima
Basin Integrated Plan. The purpose is to address water
resources and ecosystem improvement. Under the inte-
grated plan, we’ve got a few storage projects coming up.
We’ve got the Kachess Drought Relief Pumping
Plant in initial development. They’re proposing to access
200,000 acre-feet of inactive storage for use in severe
drought.
We’re also looking at performing hydrologic modeling at
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
See Q&A, Page 12
Scoggins Dam, northwest Oregon.
Atmospheric river helps refi ll
Willamette Valley reservoirs
Russia-Ukraine uncertainty
pushes wheat prices higher
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
PORTLAND — An
atmospheric river brought
heavy rainfall to the Wil-
lamette Valley this week,
which the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers expects will
help refi ll some of its reser-
voirs stretching from Port-
land to south of Eugene.
Despite torrential down-
pours that set multiple one-
day records for precipitation
on Feb. 28, most areas still
recorded overall defi cits for
the month.
According to the National
Uncertainty over Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine pushed wheat futures higher this
week, but market analysts aren’t sure how
high they’ll go.
Both nations are major
wheat producers.
“It is ‘top of the fold’ and
the only story that is trading
right now,” said Dan Steiner,
grain merchant at Morrow
County Grain Growers in
Dan
Oregon.
Steiner
December wheat futures
prices reached a high of
$9.41 per bushel on the
Chicago market March 1.
Futures have increased by
$1. 43 to $1.57 during the
past several weeks, analysts
said.
“You don’t see this hap-
Byron
pen very often,” said Byron
Behne
Behne, senior merchant at
Northwest Grain Growers in
Walla Walla, Wash. “It is similar to the move
that happened in 2014,” when Russia annexed
the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.
At that time, wheat prices were below
$6 per bushel, but rose to more than $7 per
bushel, Behne said.
“I don’t know the size of this move, given
we were starting at $8, what to expect here,”
he said. “This is the highest the wheat futures
Corps of Engineers
The Lookout Point Dam on the Middle Fork Willamette
River is one of 13 in Oregon’s Willamette Basin.
Project, a series of 13 dams
and reservoirs built for fl ood
control that also provide
stored water for irrigation,
fi sh and wildlife, recreation
and hydroelectricity.
Erik Petersen, the Corps’
operations manager for
the Willamette and Rogue
basins, said that “while
every drop of precipitation
helps right now, the atmo-
spheric river appears to be
impacting areas north of
the Willamette Valley more
signifi cantly.”
See Reservoirs, Page 12
Growing
GENERATIONS
TOGETHER
have been since 2012.”
Old-crop white wheat cash prices haven’t
been aff ected, Behne said.
“It’s kind of been on its own planet all year
just because of the small crop,” he said, adding
that the Ukraine crisis has helped the new crop
white wheat prices more.
On the cash market, soft white wheat prices
ranged from $10.50 to $11.25 per bushel this
week at Portland. They ranged from $10.50 to
$11 a month ago.
“No idea on how high they might go,” said
Darin Newsom, a wheat analyst in Omaha,
Neb. “It depends on how the situation esca-
lates. Right now, wheat is just one market out
of many that nobody wants to sell. In markets
See Ukraine, Page 12
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Weather Service, the Salem
area saw the most rain with
1.76 inches. That brought its
monthly total to 2.8 inches,
or about 60% of normal.
Portland
International
Airport received 1.66 inches
of rain, bringing total Feb-
ruary precipitation to 2.77
inches, or roughly 75%
of normal. Rainfall was
lighter in Eugene, which
got 0.48 inches, bringing its
monthly total to just under
0.98 inches — just 20% of
normal.
The Army Corps oper-
ates the Willamette Valley
Efrem Lukatsky/Associated Press File
The Mariupol port in Ukraine in 2018.
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