The Bulletin., November 13, 2021, Page 7, Image 7

The BulleTin • SaTurday, novemBer 13, 2021 A7
Farmers
Continued from A1
The past several growing
seasons have seen farmers
leave half of their farms fal-
low due to the lack of water.
The inability to plant half
their crops has slashed reve-
nues, making it difficult to pay
rents, mortgages, payments for
equipment and other bills as-
sociated with farming.
Jefferson County farmers
pay irrigation bills of around
$70 per acre, according to Josh
Bailey, general manager for
North Unit Irrigation District,
which supplies water to the
area. Bailey said his irrigation
district has requested $30 mil-
lion in aid to help with emer-
gency drought relief.
Bailey added that no deci-
sion has been made on how
the funds would be dispersed
if they were received. But pay-
ments could be made directly
to farmers or for emergency
drought relief. Around $150
million has been set aside for
emergency disaster relief, to
help with wildfire, ice storms
and drought across the state,
he said.
“The (state) emergency
board has not voted on how
to spend the money yet. We
are waiting for them to do that
and North Unit requested $30
million,” said Bailey, referring
to the the official panel of state
lawmakers that meets between
sessions.
“If we were to get that
money, it would be a combina-
tion of different things such as
funding the district or passing
that money on to farmers.”
Jos Poland, a Jefferson
County dairy farmer, said
many farmers in the county are
so financially constrained that
paying their water bills won’t
be possible. State aid to fund
water bills would help farmers,
he said.
Funding support is “ab-
solutely necessary because if
there aren’t enough people to
pay their bill, North Unit could
fall apart, and then you don’t
have anything going on here,”
said Poland, who supplies or-
ganic milk to Eberhard’s Dairy
Products and Darigold.
North Unit, which irrigates
around 58,000 acres of farm-
land, is a junior water rights
holder in Central Oregon and
michael Kohn/The Bulletin
Republican U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, second from left, speaks with irriga-
tors, county commissioners and farmers in Madras on Friday.
has storage rights to the water
at Wickiup Reservoir. Wickiup
has run dry the past two years
due to a combination of severe
drought and greater winter re-
leases to support Oregon spot-
ted frog habitat.
Speaking to a group of
around 20 farmers and ranch-
ers on Friday at the Central
Oregon Livestock Auction
Yard near Madras, Rep. Cliff
Bentz, R-Ontario, said he is
open to seeking aid for farmers
and ranchers in Central Or-
egon. Assistance could come
from remaining COVID-19
relief funding supplied by the
state.
“This would be considered
emergency funds, similar to
what happens when there is
a hurricane or tsunami,” said
Bentz, who represents all of
Central and Eastern Oregon
and parts of Southern Ore-
Wyden
Continued from A1
The Warm Springs water treatment
plant, and the associated pipes that
deliver water to customers, has failed
repeatedly over the past two years,
resulting in multiple notices to res-
ervation residents to boil their water
before using it. The Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs are now look-
ing to the federal government to help
fund a massive renovation project.
Wyden, along with fellow Oregon
Sen. Jeff Merkley, also a Democrat,
visited Warm Springs in October and
pledged to help the tribes.
The infrastructure bill contains $11
billion in funding for tribes, a cash pot
that Warm Springs hopes to tap next
year. Included in the funding is $3.5
billion for tribal sanitation projects.
Other funds in the bill include $3
billion for tribal transportation, $2.5
billion to address Native American
water rights settlements, and $2 billion
for broadband access on tribal lands.
Projects that could get funded at
ryan Brennecke/Bulletin file photo
Flint Scott, a Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs member, moves a rack of 5-gallon
containers of water while working at the distribution center in August 2019. The wa-
ter was collected when residents were asked to boil their water before they used it.
Warm Springs include the replace-
ment of the 40-year-old drinking wa-
ter treatment plant and the installa-
tion of new underground pipes across
the reservation.
Louie Pitt Jr., the director of gov-
ernment affairs and planning for
the Confederated Tribes of Warm
gon. “The money would not
be available instantly. It would
come through insurance over a
period of time.”
Bentz was also supportive of
a plan to build a pump station
on Lake Billy Chinook to draw
water from the lake to fill Hay-
stack Reservoir, instead of pull-
ing water from the Crooked
River.
The project would al-
low North Unit to use its full
Crooked River water rights.
Mike Britton, executive
manager for North Unit, said
that the pumping project will
cost $300 million to $400 mil-
lion to build with an annual
operating cost of $3 million to
$5 million.
“It’s a heavy lift for everyone
in this room to pull a project
like that, but having said that,
with trillions of dollars coming
out of infrastructure packages,
now is the time to take advan-
tage of that and get a project
like that done.”
Britton said before the dis-
trict invests more heavily in
the development of that proj-
ect, the irrigation district must
first get approvals, or letters
of nonopposition, from Port-
Springs, said plans for system up-
grades are gaining strength.
“We are preparing with grant peo-
ple and others to be shovel ready
when the opportunity comes down,”
said Pitt. “We are doing the internal
things that need to be done.”
Pitt added that the time is past due
to start the improvements in earnest.
“Is it too much to ask to have clean
drinking water throughout the year?”
Pitt said. “Let’s get on it guys.”
It’s not clear how much money will
be needed to overhaul and modern-
ize the system. Estimates have ranged
from $60 million to $130 million.
How much is needed to overhaul
the system is not yet known. Bryan
Mercier, northwest regional director
for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, esti-
mates the repairs could cost upwards
of $60 million. Previous estimates
have suggested the total could be up-
wards of $130 million.
But Mercier adds that the cost will
ultimately depend on plans put for-
ward by the tribes.
“I’m hopeful the tribe will develop a
land General Electric and the
Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs, which jointly manage
the Pelton Round-Butte Dam
complex that created Lake Billy
Chinook.
“Once we have those two
things in our hands, we will be
able to run full blast, but until
we have that it doesn’t make
sense to go out and spend mil-
lions of dollars only to have
somebody come back and say,
you know, it’s a nice project but
it’s not something we can sup-
port,” said Britton.
Britton added that the
pumping project so far does
not appear to have any strong
opposition from environmen-
talists.
“The folks that typically sue
us or the government, I have
spoken with them and they
won’t come out and support
the project, but they think it’s a
great idea,” said Britton.
“It checks the boxes for a
lot of the issues that are facing
the basin and quite honestly
I think some of our enemies
could be allies in this type of a
project.”
e
Reporter: 541-617-7818,
mkohn@bendbulletin.com
“Is it too much to ask to have clean
drinking water throughout the
year? Let’s get on it guys.”
— Louie Pitt Jr., the director of
government affairs and planning for the
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
long-term sustainable plan that will en-
sure adequate operations and mainte-
nance funds will be generated to main-
tain the system after the upcoming
investment,” said Mercier. “That may
mean metering and a rate structure to
generate revenue for the system.”
When could the government cut
the tribes a check? Wyden said he
hopes to see work begin in 2022.
“I want to start seeing improve-
ments next year,” said Wyden. “This
is unconscionable, really unconscio-
nable, that those who lived on these
lands for so long would be having
these boil your water days. Unaccept-
able, unconscionable.”
e
Reporter: 541-617-7818,
mkohn@bendbulletin.com