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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2017)
ALTUVE GOES NUTS WHITE HOUSE, NRA SUPPORT BUMP STOCK REGULATIONS PLAYOFFS/1B NATION/6A FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2017 141st Year, No. 254 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD PENDLETON Your Weekend So the wells don’t run dry • • • Harvest Festival Saturday in Boardman Free First Friday at Tamastslikt Live musical theater all weekend at BMCC The intake for the city of Pendle- ton’s aquifer recharge system takes water from the Umatilla River east of Pendleton during the higher rates of fl ow. For times and places see Coming Events, 6A Weekend Weather Fri Sat Sun 74/51 63/44 61/36 Staff photo by E.J. Harris Watch a game vs. Mountain View vs. Pendleton Friday, 7 p.m., Round-Up Arena Task force: Independent commission should redistrict By CHRIS LEHMAN Oregon Public Broadcasting A task force created by Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson is recommending that future redistricting be done by an independent commission. That would be a signifi - cant change from the current model, which tasks Oregon lawmakers with drawing up a plan. Redistricting is the process of drawing new legislative and congressional districts to match shifts in population. It takes place every 10 years, following the U.S. Census. Oregon’s next redistricting will occur in 2021. The current method of allowing lawmakers to draw the maps is “susceptible to political manipulation,” Richardson wrote in a news- letter announcing the task force report. “There is an inherent confl ict of interest in allowing legislators to draw their own districts and pick their own voters.” Legislative redistricting See REDISTRICTING:/8A Drought-resistant Pendleton still sees dwindling groundwater By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Pendleton’s aquifer storage and recovery system has won plaudits from the state and been a crowning achievement for the city’s public works director, but it isn’t a silver bullet. Despite the innovative system that allows Pendleton to funnel most of its drinking water from the Umatilla River rather than pumping it from the ground, the city’s groundwater supply has still dwindled over the years. The numbers fl uctuate depending on whether it has been a wet or dry winter, but Public Works Director Bob Patterson said groundwater levels have dropped an average of 1.4 feet per year for the past 14 years since the ASR went online. That’s better than the average 3.5 feet per year decrease before. But the new system isn’t consistently preventing groundwater loss, much less recharging the aquifer. Groundwater depletion is often discussed in an agricultural context Staff photo by E.J. Harris The water pressure for the city of Pendleton’s well water system reads on a gauge at city well 14 on the west side of Pendleton. The city currently operates eight wells for its drinking water system. in Oregon, but cities across the arid Eastern Oregon landscape rely on the same supply. If the area can’t stop drawing heavily from the aquifer, Patterson’s prediction is dire. “At some point, someone’s going to go dry,” he said. It’s just a matter of where and when. Deepening wells Patterson, whose work in the development of Pendleton’s ASR system earned him a spot on the 2016 Top Ten Public Works Leaders by the American Public Works Association, compared extracting groundwater to straws in a bowl. Pendleton has eight straws in the bowl — wells that pump 8.5 million gallons of water per day during peak use. The city eases its groundwater consumption by drawing water directly from the river during the winter and spring, treating it and storing it at the water fi ltration plant in east Pendleton. Utilizing micro-turbines that power fi ve wells and a fi rst-of-its- kind siphon design used for water fi ltration, the city has stored billions of gallons of water in a drought- plagued region that averages just 12 inches of rain per year. On balance, the city now draws 100 percent of its supply from water stored from the cooler months, See GROUNDWATER/8A Firefi ghting funding added to $29B disaster package By ANDREW TAYLOR The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Wednesday asked Congress for $29 billion in disaster aid to cover ongoing hurricane relief and recovery efforts and to pay federal fl ood insurance claims. The request comes as the government is spending almost $200 million a day for emergency hurricane response and faces a surge in fl ood claims for federally insured homes and businesses slammed by hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told lawmakers in offi cially submitting the request that the federal fl ood insurance program “is not designed to handle catastrophic losses like those caused by Harvey, Irma, and Maria. The NFIP is simply not fi scally sustain- able in its current form.” Mulvaney proposed a package of changes to the fl ood insurance program that, among others, would Associated Press LEFT: This Sept. 4 photo provided by Inciweb showed the Eagle Creek wildfi re burning in the Columbia Riv- er Gorge east of Portland. RIGHT: In this Oct. 4 photo, a monkey walks over the rubble left in the wake of Hurricane Maria on Cayo Santiago, known as Monkey Island, in Puerto Rico, one of the world’s most important sites for research into how primates think, socialize and evolve. protect low-income policy- holders from big rate hikes, allow the government to drop from the program properties that have been repeatedly fl ooded, and phasing out policies on new homes in fl ood zones. In the meantime, Wednesday’s request proposal would provide $16 billion to pay those fl ood claims, along with $13 billion for Federal Emer- gency Management Agency disaster relief efforts. Federal fi refi ghting accounts would receive $577 million as well to replenish them after a disastrous season of Western wildfi res. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Oregon) applauded the funding designated to recoup fi refi ghting costs, as well as the included recommenda- tion that forestry reform be pursued to help curb wildfi re borrowing going forward. “Another fi re season winds down and, once again, the Forest Service needed to rob money from important fi re prevention work to pay for fi ghting wildfi res,” he said in a statement. “We must not only supplement those accounts to pay for the cost of this fi re season, but it’s past time that we fi x how we pay for fi res and treat them like the natural disasters they are.” The Senate’s top Demo- crat quickly backed the aid request but signaled oppo- sition to the administration’s proposed restrictions on fl ood insurance. “This funding request is a good start, but those affected by Maria, Harvey, Irma and wildfi res still have a long and diffi cult road ahead,” said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “We should act on this supplemental quickly, but it See WILDFIRE/8A
