S moke S ignals
FEBRUARY 15, 2019
9
Winter
stories
Chinuk Immersion K-5 Teacher
Justine Flynn reads a story
in Chinuk Wawa as Chinuk
Immersion Preschool Teacher
Jeff Mercier, second from right,
translates into English during the
Winter Story Night held in achaf-
hammi on Thursday, Feb. 7. Those
in attendance also were given a
copy of the story in book form in
Chinuk Wawa published by the
Chinuk Language Program.
The Chinuk
Language Program
held a Winter Story
Night in achaf-
hammi on Thursday,
Feb. 7. A story read
in Chinuk Wawa
and translated into
English was read
aloud.
Photos by Timothy J. Gonzalez
Marie Quenelle, 8, and Ayden Ruiz, 6, follow
along to a story read in Chinuk Wawa and
translated into English.
Upcoming pipe replacement will help ensure safety
WATER continued
from page 8
The Tribe has not had a represen-
tative serve on the seven-member
Water Association Board of Direc-
tors since Public Works Coordina-
tor John Mercier left after three
years in 2012.
Also included in the draft Strate-
gic Plan is the goal of completing a
water rights legal review and the
development of a memorandum
for Tribal Council to approve to
increase the Tribe’s security over
its municipal water supply.
Part of that legal review, Engi-
neering and Public Works Manager
Jesse White says, is determining
if 10 Tribal irrigation water rights
could ever be used for quasi-munic-
ipal purposes.
The Tribe also owns five qua-
si-municipal water rights that
total more than 217 million gallons
annually. The water is available for
use by the casino and lodge, and as
a possible backup supply for the
Water Association should its source
ever be interrupted.
The Executive Office, Tribal
Attorney’s Office, Public Works
Department and Planning Depart-
ment have been identified as the
Tribal entities that will work on
Tribal water issues.
Planning Director Rick George
says the likelihood of the Grand
Ronde Tribe acquiring its own
significant water right from the
state of Oregon is probably minis-
cule based on surface water rights
Photo by Timothy J. Gonzalez
Karl Ekstrom, manager of the Grand Ronde Community Water Association, is
interviewed in his office on Thursday, Jan.17.
downstream, but the Tribe could
become more involved with the
Water Association by having a
representative on the board.
The Tribe also could build a
storage tank that would supply
Tribal residents when the Water
Association issues a drinking water
advisory, which it last did in Octo-
ber 2015 when coliform bacteria
was detected. It was the seventh
straight year that the Water Asso-
ciation detected coliform bacteria
in its supply.
To resolve the issue, the Water
Association used chlorine to sani-
tize the storage tanks. The Water
Association doesn’t disinfect with
chlorine or add fluoride to its water
on a regular basis.
At the time, Polk County Envi-
ronmental Health Supervisor Jim
Solvedt said that finding coliform
bacteria in rural water systems is
not unusual since biomass buildup
inside pipes is common.
“It’s a really good source of wa-
ter,” he said about the Grand Ronde
Community Water Association.
Mercier says his No. 1 item from
a Tribal strategic planning perspec-
tive would be seeing a larger water
line tie-in with the 12-inch water
line that ends at the intersection
of Grand Ronde and Hebo roads,
which would create a loop and im-
prove water supplies and fire pro-
tection to Uyxat Powwow Grounds
and the achaf-hammi plankhouse
off Hebo Road.
“That would improve water deliv-
ery in leaps and bounds,” Mercier
says.
But, he adds, the Tribe does not
need to consider creating its own
municipal water system because of
the abundance of water provided by
the Water Association.
“When we talk about water de-
livery and the different types of
water delivery that we need for this
community, we want to try to create
a system that’s just safe for our
users,” Mercier says. “What that
really means to us is just working
together with the Water Associa-
tion as we plan for our needs.
“Personally, us just working with
Grand Ronde Water is my desir-
able. They are already structured
and in place to deliver water.”
Ekstrom says an upcoming pipe
replacement project will help en-
sure the water supply’s safety. The
$400,000 project will upsize 4-inch
pipes near the springs and allow
the Water Association to extract
more water. Another project will
replace a failing booster pump sta-
tion near Rowell Creek.
“It’ll be a safer supply, not that
our current supply is unsafe. It’ll
just make it safer,” Ekstrom says.
“If you’re only talking about a few
hundred more homes, (water sup-
ply) should never be an issue.”