A4
OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
OUR VIEW
Why Oregon
must develop
a water plan
regon desperately needs a coordinated, eff ective, re-
sult-oriented and clear water policy that the Legislature
has approved and the governor supports.
Without it, irrigators and even municipalities will have to
fend for themselves.
But that’s what they’ve had to do for decades.
Around the state, water issues have been all but ignored.
In Klamath Falls, for example, water problems have existed
for decades, yet the state has been either silent or ineff ective in
resolving them.
In dry Central Oregon, the rapid population growth is strain-
ing the water supply, but the state is remarkably silent on how to
address it.
Elsewhere, water supplies and quality are problems, including
in the Willamette Valley, Portland and Eastern Oregon.
When irrigation districts do try to expand water storage, the
state attaches strings that throw the project into question.
Near Hood River, for example, the Farmers Irrigation Dis-
trict invested millions of dollars to raise the Kingsley Dam to
increase the amount of water stored behind it.
Only now the district’s leaders worry that the state has
attached environmental strings to the project funding that mean
more water can’t be stored unless the stream fl ow is higher than
regulators require.
The irrigators worry the stream fl ow requirement is unreal-
istically high, but the Oregon Water Resources Department dis-
putes that.
Either way, the state will have partially funded water stor-
age that won’t be used during the driest years, when it’s needed
most.
That may make sense to someone, but to water users — and
taxpayers — it makes no sense.
Even when the Legislature decides to help with water proj-
ects, its intentions are subverted. In 2013, it passed a water sup-
ply grant program. The idea was to help irrigators and oth-
ers build more storage. But the rule-making turned it into an
“unmitigated disaster,” according to Jeff Stone, executive
director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries, adding that
“rule-making is where good bills go to die because everyone
re-litigates all they wanted in the fi rst place.”
Environmental groups say that because public money is
involved, water users should expect to meet higher standards.
That’s an interesting thought, but the logic is missing. If the
state’s rules don’t follow the legislation and make adding stor-
age unaff ordable, they fail to accomplish what the Legislature
wanted.
By doing that, the agencies make the Legislature look inept.
Legislators see the shortcomings of the current mess.
Groups that need state help for storage projects avoid the Water
Resources Department, which in turn says it must follow the
state constitution’s mandates.
Lawmakers support “place-based” planning for water, allow-
ing communities to develop plans. Unfortunately, they don’t
have the authority to put those plans into eff ect, according to
Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane and vice chair of the House Water
Committee.
Rep. Ken Helm, D-Beaverton, said the state needs a “water
czar,” which the next governor should appoint. “We need leader-
ship from the governor. There’s no substitute for that,” he said.
What Oregon needs, though, is leadership in the Legislature
to recognize the critical importance of water statewide and to
development a statewide framework that will help communities
implement water plans.
Then they need to tell state agencies that the goal is to wisely
manage the water resources, not create more hoops for irrigation
districts and others to jump through.
O
WHERE TO WRITE
GRANT COUNTY
• Grant County Courthouse — 201 S.
Humbolt St., Suite 280, Canyon City 97820.
Phone: 541-575-0059. Fax: 541-575-2248.
• Canyon City — P.O. Box 276, Canyon City
97820. Phone: 541-575-0509. Fax: 541-575-
0515. Email: tocc1862@centurylink.net.
• Dayville — P.O. Box 321, Dayville 97825.
Phone: 541-987-2188. Fax: 541-987-2187.
Email: dville@ortelco.net
• John Day — 450 E. Main St, John Day,
97845. Phone: 541-575-0028. Fax: 541-575-
1721. Email: cityjd@centurytel.net.
• Long Creek — P.O. Box 489, Long Creek
97856. Phone: 541-421-3601. Fax: 541-421-
3075. Email: info@cityofl ongcreek.com.
• Monument — P.O. Box 426, Monument
97864. Phone and fax: 541-934-2025. Email:
cityofmonument@centurytel.net.
• Mt. Vernon — P.O. Box 647, Mt. Vernon
97865. Phone: 541-932-4688. Fax: 541-932-
4222. Email: cmtv@ortelco.net.
• Prairie City — P.O. Box 370, Prairie City
97869. Phone: 541-820-3605. Fax: 820-3566.
Email: pchall@ortelco.net.
• Seneca — P.O. Box 208, Seneca 97873.
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Published every
Wednesday by
Phone and fax: 541-542-2161. Email:
senecaoregon@gmail.com.
SALEM
• Gov. Kate Brown, D — 254 State Capitol,
Salem 97310. Phone: 503-378-3111. Fax:
503-378-6827. Website: governor.state.or.us/
governor.html.
• Oregon Legislature — State Capitol, Salem,
97310. Phone: 503-986-1180. Website: leg.
state.or.us (includes Oregon Constitution and
Oregon Revised Statutes).
• Oregon Legislative Information —
(For updates on bills, services, capitol or
messages for legislators) — 800-332-2313,
oregonlegislature.gov.
• Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale — 900 Court St.
NE, S-301, Salem 97301. Phone: 503-986-
1730. Website: oregonlegislature.gov/fi ndley.
Email: sen.lynnfi ndley@oregonlegislature.
gov.
• Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane — 900 Court St.
NE, H-475, Salem 97301. Phone: 503-986-1460.
District address: 258 S. Oregon St., Ontario OR
97914. District phone: 541-889-8866. Website:
oregonlegislature.gov/fi ndley. Email: rep.
markowens@oregonlegislature.gov.
FARMER’S FATE
Making waves in a no-wake zone
I
’ve got corn roasting on the
barbecue
Got a three day tan in my new
swimsuit
Sitting on a surf board on the
water blue
Hey, I’m doing alright
Yeah I think I’ll listen to these
homemade tunes
feeling pretty good this afternoon
It’s neither drink nor drug induced
No, I’m just doing alright
and it’s a great day to be alive
I know the band’s still playing
when I close my eyes
There’s hard times in the
neighborhood
But why can’t every day be just this
good?
What a good day it was, too. It was
the kind of day that gets told about for
years: “Remember that July back in
‘22 when we built that hot tub boat?”
For more than a year, my husband and
his friend, Jonathon, have talked about
building a hot tub boat. It started out
as a silly “you know what we need...”
but quickly morphed into actual logis-
tics of how to heat the water.
This year, Jonathon decided the
time for talk was over. There was to
be a concert on the water over the
Fourth of July weekend, and that
became his goal — to build a boat in
six days. The two guys were exuber-
ant with the new project, while Jona-
thon’s sister and myself were slightly
more skeptical. But never underesti-
mate a man with a plan.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
ization that made slavery palatable.
Let’s trust women
America needs a
The issues we face today with
to make decisions
course correction
the overturning of Roe vs. Wade are
To the Editor:
Earlier this year, the remnants of
a wanted pregnancy left my body. It
was a lengthy and brutal miscarriage.
It’s a loss I grieve, yet I wholeheart-
edly trust the wisdom of my body —
something was wrong, so it didn’t
take.
For most of our history, humans
capable of pregnancy, and the wise
women and healers who cared for
them, considered miscarriage, men-
struation, and abortion one and the
same. Herbs and tinctures were given
with care to support those struggling
to grow a family and those who, for
whatever reason, needed to end a
pregnancy.
Jia Tolentino shares in a thor-
ough New Yorker article: “Ancient
records of abortifacient medicine are
plentiful; ancient attempts to reg-
ulate abortion are rare. What regu-
lations existed refl ect concern with
women’s behavior, not with fetal life.
The early Christian Church opposed
abortion not as an act of murder but
because of its association with sex-
ual sin. The Bible off ers ambiguous
guidance on the question of when life
begins: Genesis 2:7 arguably implies
that it begins at fi rst breath; Exodus
12:22-24 suggests that, in Old Testa-
ment law, a fetus was not considered
a person.”
It wasn’t until the Black Death
wiped out much of the population and
the fi rst slave ships sailed with human
cargo that the church and state began
to wage deliberate campaigns to force
women to give birth.
The beliefs some people hold
about fetal personhood did not arise
from faith. Its roots lie in the desire
to repopulate the human race after a
plague, alongside the same dehuman-
complex, yet for those who were
taught life begins at conception, it’s
so simplistic: They were spoon-fed a
belief that undermined bodily auton-
omy, infl icting a level of control that
has spanned centuries. God had noth-
ing to do with it.
Those who are able to reproduce
know what’s best for themselves.
Rather than continue to exert such
twisted and dehumanizing control,
let’s trust women and their families to
make their own decisions.
Ashley Stevick
John Day
Malheur decision
is a real turkey
To the Editor:
The United States Department of
Agriculture is part of our federal gov-
ernment, and the U.S. Forest Service is
a branch and part of that department.
The job of the Forest Service,
according to its motto and pledge, is
to “care for the land and serve the peo-
ple.” The national forests belong to the
people. All the people.
It is not the job of the Forest Service
to select or choose any NGO (non-gov-
ernmental organization) to manage our
national forests. The Malheur National
Forest has done this by selecting the
National Wild Turkey Federation to
manage the Starr Aspen Timber Sale.
I must ask, is the NWTF a branch
of the USDA or an outside NGO? Any
NGO selected to manage our national
forests sets a precedent and opens a
Pandora’s box diffi cult to close.
Which special interest group (NGO)
may be next? Defenders of Wildlife?
Protagonists of Canis lupus?
Michael R. Christensen
John Day
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
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To the Editor:
To Mr. Biden and company:
Remember the old saying, “I want my
kids and grandkids to have it better
than I did.”
Well, as of right now, I’m worried
about them having a life as good as
the one I have had. This country is in a
state of decay and you, Mr. Biden, and
your followers are responsible.
China knows it, and two more
years of this and we are toast!
Today is July Fourth. Please think
about how things are and how we got
here.
Pull your head out of the sand
and change this horrible path we are
headed down.
On days like this I wonder what
the guys who ran up the beach at Nor-
mandy or the ones at Okinawa would
think of the way things have turned out.
I’ve got a pretty good guess!
Eddy L. Negus
Prairie City
Latest local lunacy is
a head-scratcher
To the Editor:
Last April, backing out of the
Chamber parking lot, I bumped into a
boulder. Guy comes running over, yells
that I hit his car. He was parked 20 feet
away in the street on the other side of a
rock garden!
No physical investigation by any-
body. My insurance paid him $1,600.
Their accident reconstruction expert
agreed from an offi ce in Baker. State of
Oregon rubber-stamped it. Local police
won’t touch it after the fact. DMV
Fraud doesn’t answer their phone.
Richard Colbeth
John Day
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send address changes to:
Blue Mountain Eagle
195 N. Canyon Blvd.
John Day, OR 97845-1187
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Offi ce Assistant .....................................Alixandra Hand, offi ce@bmeagle.com
MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
ing up the sun and music.
Bass-trackers, Bayliners and a hot-
tub barge
Strung together like a fl oatin’
trailer park
Anchored out and gettin’ loud as
the concert plays on.
Side by side, there’s fi ve of us soak-
ing our toes
AstroTurf, lawn chairs and tiki
torches
Regular Joes rockin’ the boat,
that’s us
The Redneck Yacht Club
The concert eventually came to
an end, but not before Jonathon had
received several off ers to buy his red-
neck hot tub boat. Motoring back to
the dock in the moonlight, the buzz of
the last concert notes still ringing in
our head, we were all wearing pretty
big smiles.
The hot tub boat was a success.
So redneck. So fun. But if I know my
husband and Jonathon, this is only the
beginning. Before they had fi nished
tying it up, they were already calling
it “Prototype 1,” with plans for next
year’s boat to make even more waves
in a no-wake zone!
I got my toes in the hot tub, arms
getting tanned
Not a worry in the world, listening
to a good band
Life is good today... life is good
today…
Brianna Walker occasionally
writes about the farmer’s fate for the
Blue Mountain Eagle.
Back this hitch up
into the water
Untie all the
cables and rope
Step onto the
AstroTurf
Or get in the
Brianna
Jacuzzi
Walker
Let’s go
Who said any-
thing about skiin’?
Floatin’ s all we plan to do
You can dance to the music
Just don’t rock the boat while Jon
barbecues
On the pontoon...
A small Jacuzzi tub was dropped
into the middle of a platform complete
with AstroTurf, barbecue, umbrella,
American fl ag and rubber duckies.
We added some chairs, fi lled the tub
with water, and loaded on a cooler
of soda and snacks. We were ready
for the concert. The guys fi red up the
barbecue (which also doubled as the
secondary water heater) and started
motoring across the marina to where
the Brewers Grade Band was starting
to play.
My sister and I followed on pad-
dleboards. People were gathered in
sailboats, big fl oaties, ski boats, pon-
toons, kayaks, and some just fl oat-
ing in life jackets. “Sweet Home Ala-
bama” echoed across the water to
much toe-tapping, head-bobbing and
all around splashing. Defi nitely a great
day to be alive. Jonathon barbecued
while the rest of us lazed around soak-
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