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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2003)
OCTOBER 1, 2003 Smoke Signals 2003 water feature Even In The Rain-Soaked Northwest, And H Tribal development has been delayed and put on hold while the Tribe does the wate jWfUftil(j,;Bjieu 4 1 'ill (" mm m ! kk yl W H v j J I U i 1 j MWWHWIIIW'W)IIM I Ii Ik .'jf 5 H ' ' ( .;,-,. '2-, r " . r . . ill ! Too Small The Grand Ronde Community Water Association was never big enough to take on the water needs of the Tribes' successes: a government with half a dozen agencies, more than 300 employees, three housing developments, the Spirit Mountain Casino and Lodge with its 1,500 employees and thousands of guests per day. As Tribal endeavors expand, including the convenience store, RV facilities and car wash going up in the background, a significant effort was required from the Tribe to keep the water flowing. n the last few years, after a decade of continual Tribal de velopment, the Grand Ronde community appeared to be running out of water. The number of projects the Tribes had proposed for development slowed. Those underway were de layed by six months and up to a year, according to Duane Hussey, Development and Construction Co ordinator for the Tribes' Housing Authority. "We haven't even been bringing projects to the board," said former Casino and Lodge General Man ager Mark Holland before all the pieces of the current water plan were in place, "because we know we can't do any development." A scarcity of guest rooms meant that the Spirit Mountain Lodge was turning away customers enough to fill 1,200-2,200 rooms a month, said Holland. While committees had looked at the feasibility of adding 100 rooms, a convention center, and a swimming pool to the facility, Holland knew that without addi tional sources of water, nothing would be built. At the same time, the non-Tribal community was having its own problems. In the early 1990s, ac cording to Karl Ekstrom, Manager of the Grand Ronde Community Water Association (GRCWA), new hookups along an area of Highway 22 were held up for 2 to 4 years while the association built a 50,000 gallon storage system. According to Ekstrom, the water system had been accepting new hookups on a case-by-case basis. "Anything over a single family house goes through our attorney and board of directors," said Ekstrom at the time. toC IKh. "",. 1 7nr ill w. Mi Ufj ipty rtV(te .-.'. LK r 1! 71 i Investment The pipes above hardly show the extent of the Tribes' $1.65 million water treatment plant that will soon free up three million gallons per month for community uses. This project is an example of how the Tribes have also been a good neighbor. The Tribes' development effort began in 1992 when GRCWA held and maintained about 350,000 gal lons worth of storage space. That same year, the Tribes opened the main Community Center. In 1995, the Tribes opened the Spirit Moun tain Casino; in 1996, the Grand Meadows manufactured home park; in 1997, the Health and Wellness Center; in 1998, the Gov ernance Center, the Spirit Moun tain Lodge and the third phase ex pansion of the casino; in 2000, Hip Tilixam, the first phase of a three part Elder Housing project; in 2002, the Education center; and in 2003, Chxi Musam Illihi, the new low-income rental housing devel opment. "It was pretty clear (as early as 1997) that the demand was putting a strain on the available resource," said Tribal Engineer Eric Scott. "That really began close scrutiny by the water association of any additional uses." By 2000, when El der Housing came on line, "We were consulting with the Grand Ronde Com munity Water Asso ciation on a monthly basis to try to find ways to reduce de mand and to identify alternative sources," said Scott. Neither the Tribes nor the community water system were standing still while all this development was moving for ward. As early as 1993, development of the casino promised to consume about 25 percent of the area's ' - " supply. "Planning (for the community's 500,000-gallon stor age tank) began when we first learned that the casino would be built," said Ekstrom. Along with the community's in creased storage, the Tribes also planned a 500,000-gallon tank, which ended up being finished first, in 1995, a year before the community's tank started taking in water. "The pre-eminent need was fire protection," said Ekstrom. The Tribes' facility was in a better place to fight fires, and the builder for both tanks were the same, so the Tribe's storage tank was built first, he said. In 1996, the Tribes constructed a 12-inch water main to serve the Grand Ronde Road corridor, in cluding new and planned Tribal fa cilities. In 2000, Scott began to focus on water rights issues. In a process that took three years to fully real-
