A8
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Saturday, June 11, 2022
Creek:
Continued from Page A1
Kristian Foden-Vencil/Oregon Public Broadcasting
The Pendleton Unmanned Aircraft System Range bought several mobile air-command cen-
ters so visiting companies can drive into the countryside to fl y their drones over varied ter-
rain, including canyons, forests, pastures and rivers.
Drones:
Continued from Page A1
What customers want,
according to Chrisman, is
to get to market quickly and
safely. And Pendleton helps
them do that.
During the last six years,
the airport has hosted dozens
of major tech organizations,
including Airbus, Yamaha,
NASA and Verizon.
Nine companies now lease
space year-round; Yamaha is
testing unmanned helicop-
ters about the size of a small
person. They can deliver
herbicides directly onto an
individual vine on a hillside.
Company leaders think the
drones might be more effi cient
and cheaper than traditional
crop-dusting planes.
An Arizona-based
company, Spright, is working
on transporting medical tests
between a health clinic and a
laboratory via drones.
“Our goal is not to come,
test and leave. It’s actually
to come, test and hire and
encourage jobs locally,” said
Spright Vice President Justin
Steinke.
About 10% of drone
activity at the Pendleton
Unmanned Aircraft System
Range is military. Those proj-
ects are secret. Chrisman said
what’s important is that all
these technologies are cutting-
edge and the basis of what he
calls a fourth industrial revo-
lution.
“The world and Oregon
would be very shocked if
they knew the technology
that’s right on the horizon.
And we’re going to hopefully
usher it in, right here through
the Pendleton airport,” Chris-
man said.
Drone money spills into
local economy
All the new activity at the
Kristian Foden-Vencil/Oregon Public Broadcasting
During the last six years, the Eastern Oregon Regional Air-
port, Pendleton, has hosted dozens of major tech organiza-
tions, including Airbus, Yamaha, NASA and Verizon.
drone range has been good for
the local economy. Employ-
ment around the airport has
jumped from 20 jobs to 200
over the last six years.
But the new workers are not
doing traditional airport work
like air traffi c control, and the
airport doesn’t off er any more
commercial fl ights than before
the drone boom. Instead, the
new workers are drone pilots,
engineers, entrepreneurs and
software experts, all work-
ing for private companies on
drone projects.
Those businesses are
paying to lease hangars and
to use the drone range, money
that funnels back to local
coff ers. Airport revenues will
amount to about $1.7 million
dollars this financial year;
that’s four-and-a-half times
more than in 2016.
After years of operating in
the red, the airport now makes
a profi t.
Drone activity is being felt
in town, too. A brand new
Radisson Hotel opens this
spring, to provide accom-
modation for visiting drone
pilots. One drone company
booked the local Pendleton
House Bed and Breakfast for
two years solid.
Some of Pendleton’s
construction companies have
benefi ted. Joseph Hull, a vice
president at McCormack
Construction, said they have
hired several dozen workers to
build hangars during the last
couple of years.
Pendleton’s car rental busi-
nesses are benefiting, and
local restaurants such as the
Oregon Grain Growers Brand
Distillery have seen a substan-
tial increase in diners. Not one
Pendleton restaurant closed
during the pandemic.
But the owner of Eden’s
Kitchen, Kayla Henshaw, said
while she’s seen a few extra
customers, the bigger deal
for her has been all the weird
things in the sky. She lives out
by the airport.
“I like to do motion lapses,
time-lapses out my porch, of
the sunset. And there’s this
one that me and my husband
to this day can’t fi gure out,”
she said. “It looks almost like
a spaceship or something.”
While restaurants, hotels
and car rental shops are
reporting increased economic
activity, Oregon Employment
Department economist Dallas
Fridley said a major drone
impact cannot yet be detected
in the local job numbers. It’s
one thing to test drones in
Pendleton; the real question is
whether Eastern Oregon can
someday attract businesses
that make drones.
“It’s not a situation where
you have manufacturers who
are based in Umatilla County
testing products,” Fridley said.
and identify steps that might
mitigate seasonal fl ooding
while making sure McKay
Dam keeps enough water
for irrigators and to provide
water for endangered fish
species.
“We’re negotiating with
ESA now,” City Manager
Robb Corbett said. “The proj-
ect’s budget is $400,000, of
which $300,000 comes from
a grant.”
The grant is from the
Federal Emergency Manage-
ment Agency. If needed, he
said, the remaining $100,000
will come from Umatilla
County, the city and the
Lower McKay Creek Water
Control District.
An ESA consultant team
has the task of documenting
conditions of the entire basin
and how it has functioned,
identifying weaknesses and
risks of future fl ooding. It
must meet with stakeholders
and appropriate agencies to
assemble a list of ideas that
might reduce fl ooding and
improve safety for property
owners.
Mark Mulvihill sits on the
Lower McKay Creek Water
Control District and has been
calling for this kind of big
look at McKay Creek since it
fl ooded in the spring of 2019.
“We need more than
anything a modern, 21st
century study of the drain-
age,” he said. “We’ve had
three high water events in
four years.”
The reservoir’s capac-
ity has diminished since
1927 due to sedimentation,
Mulvihill explained. Creek
banks downstream from the
dam have eroded, and gravel
has accumulated in its bed.
Obtaining a permit to remove
gravel is diffi cult, he stated.
“Since the creek’s desig-
nation as critical fi sh habi-
tat, we can’t routinely go
in and do maintenance,”
he said. “If the city had not
gotten permission to remove
gravel after the 2019 fl ood,
the fl ooding last week would
have been catastrophic.”
Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
Anglers try their luck Thursday morning, June 9, 2002, at
McKay Reservoir south of Pendleton, where the city council
has selected a consultant to study the McKay Creek Basin
and make suggestions to mitigate fl ooding while making
sure the reservoir has water for irrigators and fi sh habitat.
The Bureau of Reclama-
tion operates McKay Dam,
and Mulvihill said the federal
agency does a good job of
managing water fl ow, but it
is restricted by the metrics
of a very complex situation.
It’s hard to please all stake-
holders.
“It’s emotional for all
concerned,” he said. “For
the irrigators, it’s their live-
lihood. Their districts built
the dam. For the tribes,
First Foods are an essential
component of their culture.
For homeowners, the threat
of fl ooding is stressful. We all
need a data-driven study to
soothe our emotions.”
Mulvihill noted weather
patterns are changing. The
decreased capacity of the
reservoir means the amounts
allocated to irrigation and
fish habitat might not be
met in a dry year. In a wet
spring such as this year, irri-
gators hate to see a precious
resource spilling out to lower
the risk of disastrous fl ood-
ing.
“It’s a huge basin, from
Meacham down to the creek’s
confl uence with the Umatilla
River,” he concluded. “The
study might take two years,
but we have to have up to date
data to make wise allocation
decisions.”
The city advertised and
issued a request for qualifi -
cation and proposals for engi-
neering services on March 3.
ESA and Anderson Perry &
Associates Inc. submitted
bids on April 22. A selection
team with representatives
from Pendleton public works
and community development
departments and Umatilla
County recommended Envi-
ronmental Science Associ-
ates. The fi rm has offi ces in
Bend and Portland.
After analyzing oppor-
tunities to reduce fl ooding,
the team is to submit a fi nal
report. This basin analysis
will capture the information
collected and make recom-
mendations, listing the high-
est opportunity to improve
public safety.
Final recommendations
might include:
• Management plan
addressing flood control,
f loodplain and channel
protection and enhancement.
• BOR reservoir manage-
ment, considering hydrology
and sediment, with graph-
ical and conceptual draw-
ings representing planned
measures.
The council expects
consultants to present fi nd-
ings and provide a final
report describing conditions
and analysis to the city and
other government agencies.
ESA and the local stake-
holders’ advisory group also
could present fi ndings and
recommendations to city
councils and county boards
of commissioners as the proj-
ect progresses.
The consultants must
develop a strategic opera-
tions plan the city, county
and Bureau of Reclamation
would implement.
Water:
Continued from Page A1
Gray, emergency manager for
Morrow, 68 of 70 tested wells
showed dangerously high
nitrate levels.
Gray, who was present at
the meeting, expressed special
concern for infants and preg-
nant women. They are partic-
ularly vulnerable, he said.
He said he was seeing
people who knew of water
impurity but did not know
what to do about it. Some
people, he said, were boiling
their water before drinking
it, as they thought this would
help. Gray said boiling only
makes the water worse.
The emergency declaration
would empower commission-
ers to “act as an emergency
management agency,” work to
end the emergency and coor-
dinate with state and federal
agencies.
In presenting the decla-
ration, Doherty spoke of the
nitrate issue as one of inher-
itance. It’s a problem that
previous generations gave to
us, and it’s one to which we are
contributing, he stated.
He said this is especially
unfair to Spanish-speaking
residents, people who are
harmed most by this problem.
The problematic wells are
largely rural, the commis-
sioner said. He identifi ed the
worst areas as being places
with high Hispanic popula-
tions.
Boardman city water,
Doherty said, remains safe
to drink, as it has been tested
and has not risen to dangerous
levels.
In the meeting, there was no
mention of individual polluters.
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian, File
Morrow County Commissioner Jim Doherty collects a water
sample from the faucet of Boardman homeowner Tiff any
Baldock on May 9, 2022, so a lab can determine if nitrates
have contaminated the water.
Commissioner Melissa
Lindsay, who attended the
meeting via Zoom, stated
she was concerned about this
issue. She called safe drinking
water a top priority. Still, she
said, she was unsure why the
declaration was being made
at a special meeting June 9
rather than at the next regu-
lar meeting of the board on
June 15.
Doherty replied, saying
this is a big issue and address-
ing it “should have happened
a long time ago.”
By signing this declara-
tion, he said, bottled water
would be sent to people the
following day, and water trail-
ers would be placed in the area
next week.
Still, Lindsay expressed
concern about local control, as
she said she does not want to
release power to the governor.
Gray reassured her other-
wise.
“This is our disaster,” he
said.
Morrow is not losing its
ability to govern itself, he said,
free of the sorts of govern-
ment mandates that occurred
during the pandemic. The
emergency manager added
the county could wait for the
next meeting or some other
time, or it could act now,
potentially saving lives.
Doherty said there are
around 1,300 wells in Morrow
County that could be tested.
By declaring an emergency,
the county brings in the state
of Oregon with resources to
test these wells.
Members of the public
viewed the meeting via
Zoom. Some posed questions
and made statements through
chat. They largely expressed
concern over the haste of this
vote.
D ohe r t y r e a d a nd
responded to the public, point-
ing out this issue should’ve
been addressed 30 years ago
and waiting is unacceptable.
After this discussion,
Lindsay expressed agreement
with Doherty; an emergency
should be declared.
The vote was 2-0 to declare
an emergency.
Commissioner Don Russell
did not vote; he was not at
the meeting.
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