Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1978)
TEN-The Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon, Thursday, March 2, 1978 MORROW SWCD ANNUAL REPORT Water quality plan required by November by Ben Mouchette Installing conservation practices on Morrow County's farmland will be receiving more attention under the requirements of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act amendment of 1972. This act dictates that the nation's water will be "fish able and swimmable" by 1983 wherever attainable. To ac complish this each state must complete their water quality plan by November 1978. Nationally, the Environ mental Protection Agency (EPA) has the responsibility for carrying out the provision of this law. Statewide, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has been assigned the responsibility for this law. DEQ has established a Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) to help them develop Oregon's Water Quality Pro gram. Paul Jones from Hepp ner is a member of this committee. The PAC has two subcommittees working on the problems of non-point pollu tion for forestry and agricul ture. Dick McElligott from lone is a member of the agricultural subcommittee. The agricultural subcommit tee is working closely with the individual county committees as they develop their indivi dual county plans. Ken Turner is Chairman of the Morrow County Water Quality Committee that is developing the county's part of the state wide plan with assistance from the State Soil and Water Conservation Com mission. The committee is considering all possible sour ces of "non-point" pollution such as crop fields, range lands, streambanks, roads, urban areas and construction sites in their planning work. To date the committee has identified the sources of pollu tion or erosion and established a list of Best Management Practies (BMP's) that can be used to control the non-point pollution. A key element " of the county's plan is the section that outlines how the needed conservation work will be accomplished and who is responsible to see that it is Cost sharing plan assists local farmers The Morrow County ASC Committee cost-shared through the Agricultural Con servation Program (ACP), with approximately 50 farmers-ranchers, in the amount of $58,728.00 in 1977 for perform ing needed conservation mea sures. The cost of the following practices were shared at approximately 75 percent on diversion ditches, terraces, sediment dams, grass seed ing, forestry improvement practices, ponds.etc. In addition to the regular ACP, some 54 farmers-ranchers received $87,519.00 in emergency assistance through the Drought Conser vation Program, as the result of the drought the county suffered. The emergency practices cost-shared on were livestock ponds, livestock and irrigation wells, livestock pipelines, etc. Signups are now being taken for participation in the 1978 ACP program, according to Ken Nelson, Chairman of the Morrow County Committee. Practices are basically the same as last year with a major difference in the cost share rate. Major emphsis (90 percent cost share) was placed on terrace outlet struc tures, waterways, sediment retention structures and per manent seedings. Other prac tices will vary between 30 percent to 75 percent on cost sharing. For additional infor mation consult your local ASCS office. done The Implementation Program. Landowners have been in stalling conservation prac tices for years under a voluntary program which in cludes development of pro grams and assignment of priorities for technical assis tance through the Soil and Water Conservation District, technical assistance from the" Soil Conservation Service, cost sharing assistance from the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, and informational and educational programs through the Cooper ative Extension Service. Most people would like to continue this type of program but to meet the requirements of the law the water quality plans must include some form of a regulatory component. At their January meeting the agricultural sub-commit-, tee presented a policy state ment to the Policy Advisory Committee on key elements they felt should be incorpor ated into the statewide imple mentation program for non point pollution control. The local water quality commit tees feel that these elements need to be included to achieve as much local control as possible and have the maxi mum amount of voluntary compliance with the program. rftiars.... iisod mor6 fern sforcne? i Cull us! T&C STORAGE I0IIE 422-7220 STORMORE GRAIN BINS Sales and Erections WHO SHOULD GET BONNEVILLE'S POWER? How should the Bonneville Power Administration divide the power that it sells? Should BPA continue selling to its present cus tomers? Should BPA sell to new customers? What about industries? WHO GETS BPA POWER NOW? BPA currently contracts for the sale of firm power with 115 preference customers (public bodies and cooperative utilities), 6 Fed eral agencies, and 17 direct-service industrial (DSI) customers in the Pacific Northwest. These contracts will expire between 1981 and 1994. BPA has given notice to its current preference customers that it won't have enough firm power to supply their load growth after July 1, 1983. There is also a strong interest in the formation of new public bodies to qualify as BPA preference customers. With these demands on its firm power supply, BPA does not anticipate being able to continue its present service to DSI customers when their contracts expire. BPA realizes that, with the increasing demand, it is advisable to develop a formula to allocate its power. BPA will consider many alternatives and variables. We expect to consider: class of customer served, customer-owned generation, type of load, grades of energy, rates, energy conservation, and other matters. WE WANT YOUR IDEAS If you have ideas concerning how BPA should divide its power, we would like to hear from you in writing by May 1, 1978. Next year, after assessing your recommendations and analyzing the alternatives, BPA will announce a proposed allocation policy and conduct public information and comment forums to hear from you again. Send your written recommendations to the Public Involvement Coordinator, Bonneville Power Administration, PO. Box 12999, Port land, Oregon 97212. For further information, write to the above address or call 503-234-3361, Ext. 4715. BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION
