OFF PAGE ONE
Thursday, September 23, 2021
East Oregonian
A7
Water:
Continued from Page A1
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Fans cheer during the grand entry of the 111th Pendleton Round-Up on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021, at the Pendleton Round-Up Grounds.
Round-up:
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Great Pacific Wine & Coffee
manager Addison Schulberg
said he commiserated with
Meda ahead of Round-Up week
and was a little envious of his
plan.
Great Pacific did keep its
403 S. Main St. restaurant open
during Round-Up week, and
while the restaurant did see a
boost, Schulberg said the crowds
were smaller than in years
past. Given the risk of spread-
ing COVID-19, Schulberg said
it wasn’t a complete letdown
that the restaurant wasn’t fully
packed. Although Great Pacific
ceded its Main Street seating to
Main Street Cowboy vendors,
the restaurant was able to main-
tain robust outdoor seating by
placing seating along the South-
east Emigrant Avenue sidewalk
While Meda was able to
avoid the stresses of enforcing
the mask mandate, Schulberg
said getting people to comply
with it was one of GP’s consis-
tent hurdles.
“It was kind of a dark cloud
on the week,” he said.
He added that the restau-
rant distributed masks to those
without face coverings, only
to see some repeat customers
return later in the week with-
out a mask again. Even though
business was slower compared
to past Round-Ups, Schulberg
said the restaurant isn’t hanging
its hat on it and will be working
toward the next uptick in busi-
ness during the holiday season.
House:
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“We’ve been had,” said
Rep. Daniel Bonham, R-The
Dalles, a lead negotiator for
GOP on redistricting for the
2022 election. “I don’t know if
that makes me a sucker, but if
it does, I’m a sucker with char-
acter.”
Bonham was reacting
to the decision by Kotek,
to unilaterally revise a deal
giving Republicans equal say
on the House Redistricting
Committee.
The House and Senate
redistricting committees had
worked since August on the
much-delayed political maps.
Twelve legally required hear-
ings were held and thousands
of pieces of testimony and
comments were gathered.
Democrats and Republicans
submitted a total of eight
different maps.
But with the start of the
special session, all legisla-
tion and committees had to be
reconstituted.
The Senate had a commit-
tee of three Democrats and
two Republicans, just as
before. It voted 3-2 to recom-
mend maps drawn by Demo-
crats for 60 House, 30 Senate
and six congressional districts.
The full Senate approved the
maps on an 18-11 party-line
vote. The maps were then
shipped over to the House.
In a surprise, if not
completely unforeseen colli-
sion of partisan priorities,
Kotek announced she was
“To take this new age technology and sort of
marry it to our traditional roots, especially in
Umatilla which has always been an agricultural
community ... in reality, they actually worked out
in a great symbiotic relationship,” Stockdale said.
The cooling water from Amazon is piped to
an irrigation canal run by the West Extension
Irrigation District, which serves 10,400 acres of
farmland.
The project broke ground in 2019, with roughly
7 miles of pipe that run from the data center
campuses to a new headworks on the district’s
canal at the northeast end of the city.
From there, the water flows about 1,200
feet allowing it to mix with the district’s water
pumped directly from the Columbia River, dilut-
ing any excess salts and reaching a suitable pH
level before it can be used for irrigation.
Stockdale said the infrastructure cost a little
more than $5 million. So far, Amazon is the only
customer on the new system, though that could
change with future developments.
Water deliveries began in 2020. This year,
Stockdale estimated they provided enough water
for farmers to grow an additional 1,000 acres of
crops, all with existing water rights.
“Technically, it’s the city’s water in the irriga-
tion district’s canal,” Stockdale said. “If a farmer
wants access to additional water, they have addi-
tional water capacity available to them through
this system.”
The value of agriculture in arid Eastern
Oregon grows exponentially with water.
Dryland wheat grown without irrigation yields
roughly $100 per acre. Adding 1 acre-foot of
water increases the crop’s value to $500 per acre.
At 3 acre-feet of water, and farms can earn up to
$5,000 per acre growing higher value specialty
crops.
An acre-foot covers an area about the size of a
football field with 1 foot of water, or about 325,851
gallons.
As more data centers come online in Umatilla
in the coming years, Stockdale said the city is
examining other potential uses for the water in
addition to irrigation, such as repairing wetlands
in the area for wildlife.
“We continue to look at ways to be good envi-
ronmental stewards of our resources,” Stockdale
said.
A spokesperson for Amazon Web Services
said the project is the first of its kind in Oregon
and for the company, and the goal is to increase
water reuse at its northeast Oregon data centers
to 100%.
County:
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Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Rodeo fans stand and remove their hats for the singing of the national anthem Sept. 15, 2021, at the
Pendleton Round-Up. Some local business owners say their business saw slow days early in the week
and a turn around as the week progressed.
Restaurants aren’t the only
member of the Round-Up econ-
omy, which feeds a variety of
permanent and transient busi-
nesses.
Kitty corner from Great
Pacific, New York Clothier is a
haberdashery that sells the kind
of shirts that wouldn’t be out of
place in a rodeo audience. New
York Clothier co-owner Kay
Davis wrote in an email that
business was slower early in the
week before the second half of
the week saw customer levels
similar to the 2019 rodeo.
cleaving the redistricting
committee in two.
“Separate committees are
the only path the House now
has to fulfill its responsibili-
ties,” Kotek said.
A committee to vote on
House and Senate maps
would have the previous-
ly-brokered equality of
Republicans and Democrats.
However, Kotek created
a new committee of two
Democrats and one Repub-
lican to consider the more
controversial congressional
maps.
“I am confident the maps
passed by the Senate meet all
statutory and constitutional
requirements,” she said.
Kotek accurately forecast
the storm of protest from
Republicans, many of whom
noted the speaker had already
announced plans to run for
governor in 2022.
“No map is perfect, and
this is a very complex task,”
Kotek said. “Ultimately, we
are bound to do our consti-
tutional duty and the job
Oregonians elected us to do.
The committees sent both
plans to the floor Sept. 21.
The legislative maps
were recom-
mended on
a 5-3 vote.
Rep. Greg
S m i t h ,
R-Heppner,
voted with
Democrats,
Smith
saying the
pl a n w a s
better than alternatives that
might come up if the House
“We didn’t have an expec-
tation — the one thing the
pandemic has taught us, there
is no predicting,” she wrote.
“We are thankful the 111th
Pendleton Round-Up was able
to commence and our doors
were open to greet our return-
ing customers and meet new
customers. That is a blessing.”
Hotels seemed as busy as
ever during Round-Up week.
Bobbi McGee, the general
manager of the Marigold Hotel,
105 S.E. Court Ave., said all
of the building’s rooms were
booked for the week. While the
Marigold struggled with the
demand for rooms during the
Pendleton Whisky Music Fest
as they faced a labor shortage,
McGee said the hotel was better
prepared for the rodeo.
Among the vendors in town
just for Round-Up week, the
results were mixed. Through
Thursday of Round-Up week,
Main Street vendors were
reporting lower than aver-
age business but hoping for an
uptick on the final two days of
the rodeo.
The county on Sept. 22 reported 72 new
presumed and confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Average daily cases have declined slightly since
the peak of the delta surge last month, when the
county reported more than 400 cases for seven
straight weeks, smashing all previous pandemic
records.
Umatilla County’s total number of COVID-19
cases stands at 12,808. Approximately 1 in 6.25
Umatilla County residents have tested positive.
Since the start of the pandemic, Umatilla
County residents have been infected with
COVID-19 at a higher rate than any county in
Oregon, according to state. Last week, accord-
ing to data from Umatilla County Commissioner
George Murdock, 970 people received a COVID-
19 vaccination.
Although the county’s COVID-19 vaccina-
tions increased for more than a month, its total
remains the fifth worst in Oregon. Roughly two
out of every five Umatilla County residents have
been fully immunized, according to the state.
Andrew Selsky/The Associated Press, File
The Oregon House of Representatives prepare to open an evening session June 10, 2021, in
the Oregon Capitol in Salem. The House was to meet Monday, Sept. 20, for a special session
on redistricting until a case of COVID-19 prompted a cancellation.
didn’t have its say.
The congressional maps
were approved 2-0. Rep.
Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Al-
bany, the only Republican,
refused to take part in the
vote because of Kotek creat-
ing an automatic Democratic
tilt to the panel.
With the plans now poised
to be called up for final
approval, Republicans are
talking about one what one
referred to as “the nuclear
option” — refusing to attend
the floor vote.
A GOP boycott could
crash and burn months
of work on new districts
required by the 2020 U.S.
Census.
Though Democrats hold
a 37-22 majority in the
House, the Oregon consti-
tution requires two-thirds
of members be present to
conduct any business.
No Republicans showed
up for a scheduled 10 a.m.
session Sept. 20. When
they were also absent for
the 1 p.m. session, a boycott
appeared in the making.
But Drazan confirmed
the COVID-19 case was the
reason for cancellation of the
session and the GOP caucus
would follow recommenda-
tions on quarantining. Kotek
had said any member who
was vaccinated did not have
to quarantine.
A walkout wasn’t off the
table. The COVID-19 inci-
dent just paused a decision,
which Drazan said she hoped
would lead to a compromise.
“In the meantime, we will
continue ongoing conversa-
tions with Democratic lead-
ership on the redistricting
process,” Drazan said in a
statement. “It’s in the best
interest of Oregonians that
we salvage an opportunity to
pass fair maps.”
Democrats said they were
moving ahead with the maps.
Republicans were left
with the “nuclear option” of a
boycott. Their absence could
force additional concessions
from Democrats.
If no maps from the Legis-
lature are delivered to the
Oregon Supreme Court by
Sept. 27, the court has ruled
it will take lawmakers out of
the process, as outlined in
the constitution. The legis-
lative maps would be drawn
by Secretary of State Shemia
Fagan.
A five-judge panel created
by Oregon Supreme Court
Chief Justice Martha Walter
would decide on the six-seat
congressional map.
During a traditional
period of “remonstrances”
each House meeting, both
parties on Monday made
statements accusing the other
of partisan gamesmanship.
Democrats called out
Republicans for using a
constitutional parliamentary
rule to leverage a role beyond
their minority status in both
chambers.
Republicans said the
maneuvers were legal and
had been used by Democrats
in the past. They accused
Kotek of reneging on an
agreement, which they said
would come back to hurt
future negotiations, whether
she is speaker or governor.