NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Yakima Basin irrigation water woes continue
Prosser Dam into Chandler
Canal, and 11 miles down-
stream. The Chandler Power
and Pumping Plant pumps the
water up to the district’s main
canal to serve its customers.
Hydraulic pumps at Chan-
dler use 1.25 gallons of water
for every gallon they pump
to the main canal, said Jason
McShane, KID engineering
and operations manager. A
proposed $23 million project
to electrify pumping would
double the water going to the
district in water-short years, he
said.
Such water may be made
available to KID only to
replace reductions caused
by conservation. The KID
and bureau managers don’t
agree on how to quantify the
amount, according to a May 16
letter from Stuart to Freeman.
The KID serves 65,000
Kennewick and Richland res-
idents and 20,200 acres, of
which about 11,000 acres are
in orchards, vineyards and
some blueberries, hay, pasture
and row crops.
The district has rights to
102,674 acre-feet of water
annually from the Yakima
River and uses about 87,000
acre-feet, McShane said.
As the last major irriga-
tion district downriver on the
214-mile system, the KID uses
water returned to the river
from operational spills and
seepage from other irrigation
districts upriver.
Increased conservation by
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
KENNEWICK, Wash. —
Mismanagement of Yakima
Basin water conservation by
the U.S. Bureau of Reclama-
tion is threatening the supply
of water to the Kennewick Irri-
gation District, the district’s
managers say.
“The threat to our water
supply is coming from a lack
of leadership at the bureau.
We’re not contesting conser-
vation. We do it, too. We con-
test how the bureau manages
the conserved water,” Charles
Freeman, KID manager, told
Capital Press.
While not directly respond-
ing to the allegations of “mis-
management” and “lack of
leadership,” Chad Stuart, man-
ager of the bureau’s Yakima
office, issued a statement say-
ing KID is a “valuable part-
ner” in the Yakima Basin.
The bureau is aware of
KID’s water supply challenges
and will continue regular
meetings with KID to address
them, Stuart said.
“Electrification (of the
Chandler pumping plant) is
one of many options that has
been discussed to replace any
reductions to KID’s water sup-
ply” resulting from conserva-
tion authorized in the Yakima
Basin
Integrated
Water
Resource Management Plan,
Stuart said.
The KID diverts water
from the Yakima River at the
Capital Press Photo/Dan Wheat, File
The Yakima River flows through Prosser, Wash., to the top of Pross-
er Dam, where diversion for Kennewick Irrigation District starts.
those districts in recent years
has reduced return-flow water
for the KID, causing it to call
for direct releases of mountain
reservoir storage water for the
first time this year.
Direct releases are not a
sustainable solution because
they take water away from
upriver districts and are not
sufficient in severe drought,
McShane said.
Less return-flow was antic-
ipated and planned for in the
1994 enabling legislation of
the Yakima Basin Integrated
Water Resource Management
Plan, McShane said.
“We supported that legis-
lation because it obligates the
Secretary of the Interior to
replace water loss for the dis-
trict,” he said.
The law gives the secretary
options to do that. The one
KID has pushed for is electri-
fication of the Chandler pump-
ing plant. Another option,
called subordination, is reduc-
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
Widening
of shoulders
completed in June
Partly sunny
Partly sunny
Partly sunny
Mostly sunny
Partly sunny and
pleasant
By DICK MASON
EO Media Group
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
86° 61°
85° 61°
91° 61°
90° 63°
85° 60°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
90° 66°
91° 67°
95° 66°
94° 65°
OREGON FORECAST
89° 64°
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
68/61
77/56
85/55
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
85/64
Lewiston
73/61
91/67
Astoria
69/60
Pullman
Yakima 88/61
71/58
85/64
Portland
Hermiston
76/64
The Dalles 91/67
Salem
Corvallis
75/59
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
82/57
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
80/60
81/52
86/57
Ontario
95/68
Caldwell
Burns
88°
54°
88°
58°
106° (1968) 42° (1935)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
76/60
0.00"
Trace
0.06"
4.55"
5.10"
5.76"
WINDS (in mph)
93/64
87/52
0.00"
0.02"
0.09"
9.59"
6.49"
7.66"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 79/53
76/61
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
85/61
82/63
86°
52°
87°
58°
110° (1919) 42° (2011)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
73/60
Aberdeen
79/60
80/61
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
73/61
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
87/59
Thu.
WSW 6-12
WNW 6-12
WSW 6-12
W 6-12
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
83/47
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
5:16 a.m.
8:45 p.m.
2:45 p.m.
1:13 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
July 16
July 24
July 31
Aug 7
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 108° in Zapata, Texas Low 24° in Truckee, Calif.
and August we get less than
everyone else because the
water is not there,” Freeman
said.
Some say KID is misinter-
preting the 1994 legislation but
its “plain language” protects
the KID, he said.
“We need the federal gov-
ernment to provide leader-
ship and resolve these issues.
In our opinion the bureau is
more concerned with the pol-
itics of the basin than what
the law requires. Our contract
and the law is clear,” Freeman
said.
The Roza Irrigation Dis-
trict in Sunnyside and Kittitas
Reclamation District in Ellens-
burg are two members of the
joint board and the junior water
right districts most affected in
water shortage years.
The Roza has spent $10
million since 2015 piping open
canals and lining and sealing
canals to conserve water.
“The KID has taken a more
bellicose approach lately. They
filed an appeal on the environ-
mental permitting of our pipe
project last year and we have
ongoing litigation on that,”
said Scott Revell, manager of
the Roza Irrigation District.
“It’s unhelpful to working
together.”
Urban Eberhart, Kittitas
Reclamation manager, said
he’s optimistic the bureau,
KID and state Department of
Ecology can work things out
through the integrated man-
agement plan.
Progress made at Ladd Canyon
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
ing the 12,000-kilowatt power
production at Chandler to save
water, and the bureau already
is doing that, according to Stu-
art’s letter.
Even with electrification
of the pumps, the bureau and
some of its other constituents
are concerned about having
enough water in the remaining
portion of the river from Ben-
ton City downriver for fish,
McShane said.
“It’s a timing issue,” he
said. “There are fewer con-
cerns during certain times of
the year when fewer fish are
present.”
KID raised its issues with
the bureau in 2014 and it has
taken the bureau four years to
acknowledge it has an obliga-
tion to do something, McShane
said.
There’s been a lack of lead-
ership at the bureau from
the local to national level,
but Brenda Burman, bureau
commissioner, has visited the
Chandler pump station and the
bureau finally is acknowledg-
ing the Secretary of the Inte-
rior’s obligation to do some-
thing, McShane said.
“Our customers have a right
to federal water and the federal
government has to meet that
obligation,” he said.
Two Sunnyside Valley Irri-
gation District conservation
projects and one Roza Irriga-
tion District project have saved
approximately 39,200 acre-
feet of return flow from reach-
ing the KID, Freeman said,
adding he doesn’t know how
much has been saved by other
projects.
Last October, the KID
withdrew from the Yakima
Basin Joint Board, a group
of irrigation districts that dis-
cusses basin water policy.
“The board has moved
away from a collaborative
approach to a more paro-
chial one, which often works
against the lower river basin
and KID’s interests,” Freeman
wrote to the board.
Some board members
didn’t support Chandler pump
electrification, saying it might
harm fish, Freeman wrote.
Some also said loss of KID
water is justified because KID
receives more water than other
districts during pro-rationing
in drought and because a large
amount of KID water goes to
residences instead of agricul-
ture, he wrote.
“It’s true the KID receives
more on average but in July
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
LA GRANDE — Life
in the fast lane is becom-
ing safer for those driving
between La Grande and
Ladd Canyon on Interstate
84.
The shoulders of the
westbound and eastbound
fast lanes of the 10-mile La
Grande-to-Ladd Canyon
stretch of I-84 have been
widened by 3 feet as part of
the first phase of the Oregon
Department of Transpor-
tation’s $30 million Ladd
Canyon Freight Improve-
ment Project.
The widening of the
shoulders, completed in
June, is part of a project
in which crews will also
add a 1.5-mile eastbound
third lane to the Ladd Can-
yon entrance and replace a
bridge.
The expansion of the
shoulders, which are now
7 feet wide, provides
more space for drivers to
pull over during emer-
gencies, said Mike Rem-
ily of ODOT, manager of
the Ladd Canyon Freight
Improvement Project. Rem-
ily also said the expanded
shoulders will be a big help
when ODOT has to close
the slow lanes to do main-
tenance work. All slow-
lane traffic will be diverted
to the fast lanes, where the
additional space will be
make things less hazardous
for drivers as well as main-
tenance workers.
“(The expanded shoul-
ders) will make it safer for
everyone,” Remily said.
Other I-84 work that
has also been completed as
part of the project includes
repaving Exit 265, about 5
miles west of Ladd Canyon.
Remily said the Exit 265
roadway was badly in need
of repair.
“It was cracked and rut-
ted,” he said.
Although the Ladd Can-
yon Freight Improvement
Project was hindered by wet
weather this spring, its con-
tractor, Knife River Con-
struction of Boise, Idaho,
remains right on schedule.
Regardless, Remily said he
is looking forward to the
drier weather Northeast
Oregon is expected to have
in July and August.
“Everything
always
moves faster in construc-
tion when conditions are
dry,” Remily said.
All of the project’s
remaining work is being
done over a 2-mile stretch
around the entry into Ladd
Canyon. The speed limit
in the zone is 50 miles per
hour 24 hours a day and
will remain so until the
Phase 1 work is completed
in late October. Remily said
not all drivers are obeying
the limit.
“A number of (work zone
traffic) citations have been
issued (by law enforcement
officers),” Remily said.
Since early April, every-
one in the Ladd Canyon
area, including those who
have cabins, have not been
able to leave via I-84 on
weekdays between 7 a.m.
and noon and between
1 p.m. and 5 p.m. because
of bridge removal work
crews are doing. No restric-
tions for leaving Ladd Can-
yon via I-84 will be in place
this week because work
crews will be in a differ-
ent area. The restricted
weekday schedule will take
effect again July 15.
The
bridge
being
removed is one in an east-
bound lane. It will be
replaced by a concrete box-
like structure that will be
large enough to accom-
modate log trucks and
semitrucks, Remily said.
“It will feel like you are
driving under a tunnel,” he
said.
The bridge is being
replaced because it tends
to get icy and has long
posed a problem in freezing
weather, the ODOT official
said.
About half of the bridge
has been removed and the
rest will be taken out by the
end of September. The con-
crete box is being installed
as the bridge is being taken
out and should be in by
October.
ODOT will resume its
Ladd Canyon project in
April 2020. The work done
will include the addition
of a 1.5-mile third lane on
I-84 from milepost 269.5 to
milepost 271. The new lane
will be meant for trucks.
The expanded space should
reduce the number of acci-
dents by spreading out
traffic.
The number of times
Ladd Canyon has to be
closed due to trucks block-
ing lanes will also decrease,
Remily said. He explained
that if a truck crashes in the
future, there will be enough
room for traffic to move
around it while it is being
cleared.
Truck drivers will be
allowed to use only the
inner and the middle lanes
while automobile drivers
will be permitted to drive
in all three. The three-lane
stretch, Remily said, will
be similar to an eastbound
one on I-84 just east of
Pendleton.
The entire Ladd Canyon
Freight Improvement Proj-
ect is expected to be com-
pleted by October of 2020,
Remily said.
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
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ice
60s
cold front
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