REGION
Friday, May 5, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
MILTON-FREEWATER
Watershed council nets grant for aquifer recharge
Project benefits streams and wells
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Drivers who bought
a salmon license plate in
Oregon may be helping to
boost groundwater levels
around
Milton-Freewater,
flowing it back into the Walla
Walla River and providing
much-needed relief for native
chinook and steelhead.
Since 2004, the Walla
Walla Basin Watershed
Council has teamed with
local irrigation districts to
recharge gravel aquifers that
have documented ground-
water declines for 50-plus
years. The project was
recently awarded a $346,746
grant from the Oregon Water-
shed Enhancement Board to
add five new recharge sites
around the basin.
Funding for OWEB
restoration grants comes
from three main sources —
the Oregon Lottery, salmon
license plates and federal
dollars from the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
Proceeds
from salmon license plates
are specifically earmarked to
benefit the endangered fish.
The Walla Walla aquifer
recharge effort was one of
just four proposals chosen
by OWEB to receive a share
of license plate revenue
in 2017. All together, the
agency awarded 89 grants
statewide totaling more than
$9.3 million to improve
fish and wildlife habitat and
water quality.
“These investments will
improve habitat for sage
grouse, coho salmon, steel-
head and other species, while
also improving water quality
and supporting local natural
resource jobs,” said Meta
Loftsgaarden, OWEB exec-
utive director, in a statement.
Groundwater
declines
in the shallow alluvial
aquifer have been an issue
in the Walla Walla Valley
for decades, according to
Steven Patten, senior envi-
ronmental scientist with the
watershed council based in
Milton-Freewater.
As more farms and devel-
opment moved into the area,
Patten said the river became
increasingly
channelized
to avoid flooding, which
cut off flows to the historic
floodplain and prevented
groundwater from naturally
recharging into the system.
Combined with additional
wells, Patten said the aquifer
was getting hit on all fronts.
“What we’re trying to do
Photo contributed by the Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council
The Johnson Aquifer Recharge Site near Milton-Freewater is roughly three acres in
size, and has been in operation since 2004.
is simulate that lost flood-
plain connection through
artificial means,” he said.
The watershed council
partnered with the Hudson
Bay District Improvement
Company, an irrigation
district in nearby Umapine,
to divert water from the
river during high flows and
use it in specially designed
recharge sites where the
water can filter back into the
shallow aquifer.
Expert awaiting data on M-F
murder defendant psych exams
Villegas, 24, and tried to kill
their two young children
in their Milton-Freewater
Umatilla County District home. Villegas could rely
Attorney Dan Primus has on a defense of guilty but
to wait a few more weeks insane.
Primus
and
before
having
defense attorney
another expert look
Kara Davis were
at murder defen-
in court Thursday
dant Oscar Pastor
afternoon in Pend-
Garcia Villegas’s
leton to update
psychological
Circuit
Judge
evaluations.
Lynn
Hampton
In April, Primus
on the situation.
raised
concern
Villegas appeared
to the court that
via video from the
Villegas may be Villegas
jail. Relatives of
trying to fake
Oscar Villegas and
mental
illness.
Primus said he wanted Maria Villegas were also in
another expert, James court.
Davis said she asked the
Bryan, a Portland neuro-
psychologist, to evaluate state to provide her with
the raw data from previous a letter seeking the infor-
psychological evaluations mation and Jaclyn Jenkins,
of Villegas, 26, who faces chief deputy prosecutor,
charges of murder, four sent a request citing state
counts of attempted murder law. Davis said she found
and seven related felonies. the move amusing but not
Police said Villegas stabbed convincing enough to agree
and killed his wife, Maria to the state’s demand.
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
She also said she found
nothing in Oregon case
law supporting the state’s
position to have the data at
this time and was concerned
with Byran, who is not a
state-approved
criminal
psychologist. Even so, she
said, she talked to psychol-
ogist Terry Templeman,
who evaluated Villegas, and
agreed to send the data to
Bryan and may have already
done so.
Primus said Bryan should
not take long to evaluate the
data and could have a report
in a few weeks.
Hampton set another
check on the case for June 5.
Davis said by then the parties
should know if Villegas is
moving toward a settlement
conference, a change of plea
hearing or a trial. Hampton
said they would set dates
accordingly.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.
BRIEFLY
Meet and greet
scheduled for
principal candidates
HERMISTON — Three
candidates are vying to
become the next principal
of Desert View Elementary
School in Hermiston.
Stefani Wyant, Laura
Jacobsma-Odahl and Steve
Tillery have been chosen
as the finalists to replace
outgoing principal Michael
Roberts, who will resign at
the end of the school year.
The public is invited to
a meet and greet with the
finalists on Wednesday, May
10 from 2:45 to 4:15 p.m.
at the Desert View library.
Attendees are asked to stay
for the entire presentation
in order to meet all the
candidates and provide
feedback to the district’s
selection committee through
anonymous comment cards.
Wyant began her
career as a third grade
teacher at Rocky Heights
Elementary, is currently the
assistant principal at Armand
Larive Middle School.
Jacobsma-Odahl has taught
multiple grades at Oakridge
Elementary and is now an
instructional coach at the
school. Tillery’s extensive
teaching career spans back
to 1983, and he is currently a
professor at Western Oregon
University.
Telephone pole
sparks field fire
in Stanfield
STANFIELD — Umatilla
County Fire District 1
responded Thursday
afternoon to a field fire at
South Edwards Road and
Coe Avenue in Stanfield.
The fire burned a large
field, but no structures were
damaged and no one was
injured.
The property belongs to
Eldon Marcum, a firefighter
with UCFD 1, who said he
thinks the fire was caused by
a telephone pole.
“I think one wire burned
off on the transformer,” he
said. “This is the third year
in a row I’ve had a fire start
from that pole.”
As wildfire season
begins, the U.S. Forest
Service offered some tips
people can keep in mind to
prevent fires.
Suggestions include
removing dead vegetation
and other items from under
decks and porches, as well
as from within 10 feet of the
house. People are asked to
remove flammable materials
from within 30 feet of a
home’s foundation or other
structures. Clear leaves and
other debris from roofs,
gutters, porches and decks
to prevent embers from
igniting a structure, and keep
lawns and plants watered,
or cut brown grass low to
reduce fire intensity.
For more wildfire
prevention tips, visit www.
firewise.org.
———
Briefs are compiled
from staff and wire reports,
and press releases. Email
press releases to news@
eastoregonian.com
field corners or anywhere
else where a pond would not
be feasible.
“We allow that land use to
continue while doing aquifer
recharge underground,” he
said.
The project is permitted
to divert water annually
between Nov. 1 and May
15. Managers are required
to maintain minimum stream
flows for fish and wildlife,
which range from 64 cubic
Recharge sites can take
two forms, either as an infil-
tration basin or infiltration
gallery. Infiltration basins
are essentially large ponds
up to several acres in size,
whereas infiltration galleries
are like modified drain fields
where the water runs through
perforated pipes buried six
feet underground.
Patten said infiltration
galleries are especially useful
underneath access roads, in
feet per second in November
to 150 cfs later in the spring.
There are currently 12
recharge sites in Oregon,
and the OWEB grant will
add five more. Patten said
the sites helped place more
than 2 billion gallons of
water back into the ground
during the last water year,
and groundwater levels have
risen anywhere from a half-
foot to 1 foot year over year.
Not only does that
groundwater benefit wells
and irrigators, but has also
replenished springs that flow
back into the river and its
tributaries.
“Historically, about half of
those (springs) have gone dry
in the past 50 to 70 years,”
Patten said. “We’re bringing
them back to life, and they’re
flowing again year-round.”
OWEB also funded a
$376,030 floodplain resto-
ration project on Meacham
Creek east of Pendleton.
The grant, awarded to the
Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation,
will enhance three miles of
in-stream habitat for native
fish, while reconnecting the
floodplain channel to create
additional spawning habitat.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
HERMISTON
School safety report not an endorsement
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
As the vote for a bond
to fund Hermiston School
District projects draws
near, many citizens are still
considering the benefits and
drawbacks of the projects
promised if the $104 million
measure is passed.
Police Chief Jason
Edmiston said he has been
approached by several
people about the proposed
safety improvements that
would take place under the
bond, including a rebuild of
Highland Hills and Rocky
Heights elementary schools.
He said many have asked
specifically about a safety
assessment of the schools
he conducted in 2014.
The
report,
which
Edmiston
said
was
requested of him by Super-
intendent Fred Maiocco,
reviews
the
number
of incidents the police
department responded to
on school grounds in 2013,
which includes days and
hours when school was not
in session. For the year,
officers responded to 243
events at Hermiston High
School, between 60 and 75
incidents at each middle
school, and a range at the
elementary schools, with 47
incidents at Rocky Heights
and 17 at Highland Hills,
respectively the highest and
lowest number of incidents.
“I do not see anything
alarming with the number
of incidents at each school,”
Edmiston said. “Perhaps
the only peculiar number
for me is Highland Hills
Elementary as that number
is a bit lower than I would
anticipate especially with
the significant traffic issues
surrounding that loca-
tion[...].”
Edmiston said in his
report, he hoped to provide
an unbiased look at schools
with regard to security.
“I don’t make any signif-
icant
recommendations
where I don’t feel they’re
appropriate, or where I
know dollar strings are
attached,” he said.
Edmiston said that now,
with the looming bond
question, he’s had many
people ask him about the
report to inform their deci-
sions. But he said when he
was approached to write
the document, there was no
discussion specific to any
bond.
“The intrinsic theme was
to identify specific strategies
to make schools safer,” he
said. “I 100 percent stand by
the document.”
But he said he’s not
endorsing the bond, nor did
he write the document with
any intention of doing so.
In the document, he
touches on three main
safety issues at the schools:
surveillance, accessibility
and territoriality.
Of the eight school
campuses, Edmiston said
he identified accessibility
issues with two: Rocky
Heights and Highland Hills.
“Some schools here can
quickly be pointed out as
poorly designed from a
control and accessibility
standpoint,” he said. The
schools also have access to
individual classrooms on
the outside of the building,
which Edmiston said creates
safety concerns.
He added that Highland
Hills, Rocky Heights and
Sandstone Middle School
all have problematic parent
pick-up and drop-off areas,
creating traffic issues.
Edmiston
said
he
presented all this informa-
tion to the Facilities Master
Planning Committee in
September 2014, and at that
time also recommended
the district should plan for
increasing the capacity of
schools for future growth.
He said the report did not
address how progressive the
district already is in terms of
taking security measures.
“I touched upon the 2008
bond solely to set the table
for technology that came
as a result of that,” he said,
noting the surveillance
cameras that had been
installed then. “I believe it
led to a deterrent of criminal
activity, or identified things
that the school can handle
at their level versus at the
criminal level.”
He also cited crisis
training that all district
employees have received,
praising the staff for their
willingness to prepare and
learn.
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