8 OCTOBER 1, 2003 SMOKE SIGNALS 2003 WATER FEATURE
Regional Supply Efforts Continue With an Eye Toward the Future
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In the longer term, communities
may well turn to regional water
sources to meet future growth
needs in the area, said Tribal En
gineer Eric Scott. Potential dam
projects have been suggested, along
with tapping the Willamette River
as the city of Wilsonville has done.
The Polk County Regional Water
Study group is today funding the
leading study for developing a re
gional supply. The group's techni
cal advisory committee includes 15
different water providers, including
the Tribes, as well as a representa
tive from Oregon Water Resources
Department. As it continues to
evaluate the opportunities for re
gional water supplies, said Scott,
three proposals are getting the most
active consideration.
1) Among these, Scott counts the
upper reaches of Willamina Creek,
which the city of Sheridan hopes to
funnel into a large storage reser
voir with new water transmission
mains and a water treatment plant
expansion in the years ahead.
Sheridan has mounted short- and
medium-term plans for the Stoney
Mountain reservoir, but for real re
gional viability, the upper
Willamina Creek reservoir holds the
most promise, according to Scott.
The Tribe has agreed to invest up
to $50,000 as part of the cost of a
feasibility study.
Development of this site will not
be without difficulties however.
"There are a lot of land-use and en
vironmental issues and a lot of plan
ning and design work to be done
before we can rely on it," said Scott.
Potential water for the Tribes: As
much as needed.
Timeline: 10-15 years to develop
the project.
Cost of the project: tens of millions
of dollars.
2) The City of Adair Village has
water rights to 82 cubic feet per sec
ond of which Polk County is seek
ing to secure 50 cubic feet per sec
ond as a regional source. That
translates into more than 22,000
gallons per minute, truly a regional
source of water. By comparison,
consider that the casino's average
use is 70 gallons per minute.
The Tribes, along with other po
tential users, are reserving the
Adair water rights over the next
three years until a master plan can
be fully developed. The Tribes' por
tion of that effort is $3,513 a year.
Potential water for the Tribes: As
much as needed.
Timeline: 10 years to develop.
Cost of the project: several million
dollars.
3) The Setneker well field in In
dependence is currently being stud
ied, but not
enough is yet
known to con
sider it a possible
regional source.
The Tribes are
seeking addi
tional funds from the federal Bu
reau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to
study the environmental and legal
requirements for supplying water
to the cities and outlying areas of
Polk County.
One possibility is to develop a re
gional water authority that would
share water among (municipal and
other water) providers.
Every scenario faces likely oppo
sition. "Environmentalists don't
want to have water taken out of the
rivers," said Scott. "Down slope resi
dents don't want a dam built in
their water sheds, and providers
are reluctant to share dissimilar
sources of water."
Regional initiatives take other
forms, too. The effort is not all
about water supply for the local
communities. Through the Yamhill
Basin Council, a consortium with
36 stakeholders, including the Con
federated Tribes of Grand Ronde,
efforts are moving forward to clean
up regional water bodies, to repair
vegetation along the rivers' edges
(which give rivers shade and keep
the water temperature down along
stretches of the rivers where fish
might congregate), and to educate
current and future generations
about the harm done by fertilizers,
herbicides, pesticides and car care
liquids that ultimately end up in
our waterways.
Storm drain markers indicate
other places where we ought to
watch what we dump because all
these drains ultimately empty into
waterways.
The need for such activities is un
derscored by a study commissioned
by former President Clinton, which
said that there may not be a single
river or stream in the country that is
free of chemical contamination. One
fifth of animal species and one-sixth
of plant types may be at risk of ex
tinction, the report from the H. John
Heinz III Center for Science, Eco
nomics and the Environment said.
Areas close to home the Kla
math Basin, for example face cri
ses year after year just to keep both
fish alive and farmers productive
(See related story on page 3).
The regional water supply, the
silver bullet of solutions not just
here in the Valley, but in Portland,
across the country, and around the
world, often turns into an elusive
dream that has been tried and
abandoned time and again. One
of the reasons that a regional
source is so attractive is that once
developed, it would likely be more
reliable in the long term than small
systems serving communities inde
pendently. The costs for securing easements,
negotiating environmental issues,
and ultimately building dams
(where necessary) and pipelines
connecting the water from many
sources to the participants are
likely to be expensive, but as Scott
said, in doing a cost-benefit analy
sis, the Tribes are not just consid
ering revenue, but the benefit to
families and the Tribal community.
Here on the south fork of the
Yamhill River, the Polk County ef
fort is the third round of such re
gional efforts. A 1992 Bureau of Rec
lamation study for Polk and Yamhill
counties died almost immediately
after the study's recommendations
were issued, according to Gene
Clemens, Polk County Development
Director. The proposal foundered on
cost and fish passage issues.
"We would have had to build a
dam more than twice the size the
communities needed in order to pre
serve fish runs," he said.
The area will probably end up
settling for less than a regional fa
cility, according to Karl Ekstrom,
Manager of the Grand Ronde Com
munity Water District (GRCWA).
"Eventually there will be some inter-ties
but I don't see a regional
solution. (If there is,) it will be a
federal project. It will take some
thing like the Bureau of Reclama
tion to get it going."
Nevertheless, it is a solution that
the city of Portland continues to
consider to consolidate the drinking
water supply for the cities of Port
land, Gresham, Tigard, Beaverton,
and water districts such as Rock
Creek and Tualatin Valley.
It is a solution about to be consid
ered at both the World Summit for
Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg, South Africa and at
the Third World Water Forum in
Kyoto, Japan next March.
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