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Thursday, June 23, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
A rainbow appears following showers in the Coast
Range. Drought persists in parts of Oregon though
the rain has reduced its severity.
Oregon
drought:
Still facing
‘long-term
defi cit’
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — With rainstorms relentlessly
soaking the state throughout spring, Ore-
gonians can be forgiven for assuming that
drought fears have dissipated.
Many are surprised to learn that worries
about water shortages have persisted despite
the stubbornly soggy weather, said Ryan
Andrews, a hydrologist at the Oregon Water
Resources Department.
Though the season’s high rainfall and
low temperatures have mitigated what could
have been a much worse situation, much of
Oregon is still enduring a prolonged “mega-
drought” that’s affl icting the entire West,
Andrews said.
“Though the spring precipitation was
nice, it was not enough to overcome the long-
term defi cit,” he said at the Thursday, June
16, meeting of the state’s Water Resources
Commission, which oversees the agency.
Conditions associated with summer, such
as reduced streamfl ows and soil moisture
levels, have been delayed, Andrews said.
Irrigators and other water users must still
“proceed with caution,” though — particu-
larly in areas where drought has remained
severe, such as Central Oregon, Andrews
said.
According to a recent study, the past
22 years represent the West’s worst mega-
drought in about 1,200 years, he said. A
mega-drought is an abnormally dry period
that lasts more than two decades.
The multi-year drought has lingered
through the seasonal intervals of wetness
while being aggravated by lower-than-
normal snowpacks and earlier “melt-out” in
the summer, Andrews said.
Last year, OWRD got 600 reports of
domestic wells going dry or yielding less
water and has received 300 such complaints
so far in 2022, he said. Funding is avail-
able for households with low and moderate
incomes to repair or replace aging wells.
Of course, the extent and intensity of the
drought would be exacerbated without this
spring’s ample rainfall, he said.
Streamfl ows unfortunately remain below
average in some areas, but statewide the out-
look is more optimistic headed into summer,
Andrews said.
Some irrigation reservoirs were at
record-low levels at the end of last summer,
but the prolonged rains have helped replenish
them while reducing water demand from
farmers, he said.
“This recent precipitation has really
helped in terms of reservoir storage and
operations,” he said.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
From left, Kni-Co Manufacturing co-owners Molly and Theodore Jones cut a ribbon to mark the sheet metal plant’s grand
reopening in Wallowa Wednesday, May 25, 2022, while plant manager Robert Burns, Michael Reese and Kelly Guentert look on.
HEAVY METAL
Theodore Jones has high hopes of expansion, more
jobs for Kni-Co Manufacturing and Magnum Metals
By BILL BRADSHAW • Wallowa County Chieftain
W
ALLOWA — An
expanded sheet metal
manufacturing busi-
ness held its grand reopening last
month in Wallowa, with promises
of more high-paying jobs and the
transition to an employee-owned
company.
“The jobs we’re creating here,
it’s not about money, it’s not about
equipment. It’s about you guys,”
co-owner Theodore Jones told his
workers after a ribbon-cutting cer-
emony. “That’s refl ected in our
pay, it’s refl ected in our eff orts to
train you.”
A relaunch of Kni-Co Manufac-
turing and Magnum Metals comes
with the expansion of what had
been a 1,000-square-foot facility
along the town’s truck route to a
4,000-square-foot building with
many new machines.
Jones and his wife and partner,
Molly, who live in Draper, Utah,
purchased Kni-Co from Robert
Burns in early 2020. Since then,
they’ve been expanding the facility
that largely constructs gas cabinets
for the semiconductor industry and
a camp stove sold through Cabel-
la’s outdoor shops, Bass Pro Shop
and similar outlets.
To accomplish this work,
they’ve added new, high-tech
machines such as a press brake
that bends sheet metal parts, a
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Eric Weaver, a longtime Kni-Co Manufacturing employee, demonstrates how a new,
high-tech press brake bends sheet metal Wednesday, May 25, 2022, during the
company’s grand reopening at its Wallowa facility.
powder-coating (paint) system,
an oven to bake on and dry the
paint at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, a
wash system and several welding
stations.
The Joneses plan to remain
living in Utah, and Burns will
continue as the manager of the
Wallowa facility. He purchased
Kni-Co from its original owner in
2000 and plans “to be here until he
retires,” Theodore Jones said.
County who Jones is most inter-
ested in.
“We really want to promote
the culture here because it’s about
the people,” he said. “We can buy
more equipment and make more
money, but we can’t replace great
people. We want to build high-per-
formance jobs that people are
high-paid and high-skilled.”
At present, the hourly wage at
Kni-Co starts at $15 an hour. Jones
said that will increase to $16 an
Top jobs
It’s the people of Wallowa
See, Kni-Co/Page B6
“The jobs we’re creating here, it’s not about money, it’s not
about equipment. It’s about you guys. That’s refl ected in our pay,
it’s refl ected in our eff orts to train you.”
— Theodore Jones, co-owner, Kni-Co Manufacturing and Magnum Metals
Stricter groundwater regulations contemplated for Oregon
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — Oregon water reg-
ulators want to impose stricter
rules for drilling new irriga-
tion wells next year to preserve
groundwater levels and prevent
over-pumping.
A preliminary analysis of
available data suggests that little
groundwater across the state is
available for new allocations, said
Ivan Gall, fi eld services division
administrator at the state’s Water
Resources Department.
The goal is to create a policy
that’s “simple and transparent”
and also “protective” of ground-
water and senior water rights
holders, Gall said at the Thursday,
June 16, meeting of the state’s
Water Resources Commission,
which oversees the department.
The agency plans to hold public
outreach workshops about the pro-
posal this summer, following by
a “rules advisory committee” to
weigh in on potential changes.
Under this timeline, the com-
mission could vote to adopt the
new regulations in early 2023.
“It’s a very large undertaking,
when you look at the issues
before us,” said Doug Woodcock,
OWRD’s deputy director of water
management.
The agency is on an “ambi-
tious schedule” to revise the rules
for permitting new wells, he said.
It plans to later deal with other
groundwater reforms, such as the
rules for deepening existing wells.
“We’re really looking at the
groundwater allocation piece and
getting that under control,” Wood-
cock said.
Depletion of groundwater has
been a growing concern for sev-
eral areas in Oregon, drawing
increased scrutiny to how irriga-
tion uses are regulated.
Traditionally, irrigators have
been permitted to tap into aquifers
as long as the wells didn’t imme-
diately interfere with surface
waters, according to OWRD. The
agency is now contemplating an
approach that would deny permits
for new wells where groundwater
is over-appropriated or where data
is lacking.
Currently, new groundwater
uses may be approved even if
there’s insuffi cient information
about aquifer appropriation. Under
the new regulation, wells would
no longer be permitted simply
because an area “cannot be deter-
mined to be over-appropriated.”
During the June 16 meeting,
commission members urged
OWRD offi cials to cease
approving new wells in areas
where the impact to aquifers is
unknown — even before the new
regulations are fi nished.
“It’s concerning because the
existing rules would seem to be
the reason for the situation we’re
in,” said Woody Wolfe, a farmer
and commissioner.
That sentiment was echoed by
Meg Reeves, a retired attorney
and the commission’s chair.
“I would be in favor of
exploring what can be done in the
interim,” she said.
Waterwatch of Oregon, an
environmental nonprofi t, believes
that current laws and regulations
allow OWRD to “default to no”
when wells are proposed in areas
with limited groundwater data.
“We don’t think there’s any
new process needed to do this,”
said Lisa Brown, the nonprofi t’s
attorney.
Brown said her organization
appreciates the OWRD’s reg-
ulatory direction but urged the
agency to act quickly.
“We’re still seeing those
default-to-yes issuances going
through the system,” she said.