Willow Creek resident unhappy
with Corps water release
^
Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library
University of Oregon
Eugene. OR 97403
Says last week’s ‘wall of water’ was destructive
By David Sykes
A lo cal w om an
who lives on Willow Creek
is angry with the Corps of
Engineers for their unan
nounced release o f water
HEPPNER
imes
VOL. 129
NO. 23
12 Pages
Wednesday, June 9,2010
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
After 30 years Ball to retire from MCGG
By D avid S ykes
After 30 years with
the Morrow County Grain
Growers, most recently as
accounts payable book
keeper, Bonnie Ball is re
tiring.
B all, who liv es
with her husband Bob in
lone, started with the Grain
Growers June 30, 1980. Her
first job was handling paper
work for the parts depart
ment and the shop. Man
ager of MCGG at that time
was Larry Mills. She was
also given the job of mak
ing parts runs, sometimes
into Washington. “I used
to do parts runs to Pendle
ton, Hermiston even up to
Connell Washington,” she
says. “When they needed
their parts they needed them
right away, and I could
sometimes be gone all day
picking up and dropping
off parts.” She recalls one
time she went to the airport
in Pasco to pick up some
parts that were suppose to
be coming in on a certain
flight. The parts did not
make that flight and would
be coming on the next one.
So she waited for them. “I
don’t think Larry was very
happy having to pay me for
shopping all day,” Bonnie
says with a smile.
Bonnie Ball
One of the changes
she has seen in Morrow
County farming over the
years is there are fewer
small family size farms now
and more of the bigger ones.
At the Co-op itself she says
computerization has done a
lot to change things. “I have
been through five computer
system upgrades, and as
someone who doesn’t re
ally like change, I always
thought what was wrong
with the one we had,” she
says.
Her move the front
office started when be
gan helping then MCGG
employee Debbie Koffler
handle front office duties
like filing and statements.
She said when Debbie left
she moved into accounts
payable as a full time job.
What is Ball go
ing to do with her time
when she leaves the job this
week? “I have lots of little
projects and I have a three-
year old grandson who I
will be looking after more.
“He is the only one not in
school,” she says o f her
six grandchildren. Her son
Brian lives in Colorado and
has two children, and her
daughter Brandi Orem lives
in lone with four children.
Her husband Bob works
at the coal fired plant in
Boardman.
An open house in
honor of Ball’s retirement
is being held this Thursday,
June 10, from 10 a.m. to 2
p.m. at the Lexington office
and the public is invited to
stop by and wish her well.
Missing mushroom picker found
by forest service employee
from the Willow Creek
Dam June 1 that she says
damaged not only irrigation
equipment but animal habi
tat and protective stream
vegetation as well.
“Around 11 a.m.
June 1 you released a four-
foot wall of water. This I
know because you knocked
out our irrigation pump,”
Laurie Barrow, who lives
on a place between Heppner
and Lexington that straddles
Willow Creek, emailed the
Corps o f Engineers. The
Corps operates the Willow
Creek Dam and controls the
amount of water that is re
leased through the dam into
the creek downstream.
Barrow says when
the Corps releases large
amounts of water without
notifying anyone down
stream it causes damage,
and she has had enough
of it.
“Our small com
munity takes pride in our
creek and works hard to
protect it. Many individu
als, businesses, commu
nity organizations, and our
school, have put in count
less hours working to keep
our creek viable,” Barrow
said in her email to the
Corps following the June
1 release. “We were told
(by another government
entity) that our creek water
temperature was too high,
and so were certain bacteria
counts. What did we do? We
have cleaned banks, planted
shrubs, bushes, trees and
grasses to shade the water.
We have tried to clean up
what was making the water
bad. What have you done?
You have destroyed banks,
uprooted shrubs, bushes,
trees and grasses,” Barrow
told the Corps.
Barrow also la
mented the potential dam
age to wildlife living along
the creek. “We have nest
ing populations of geese,
ducks, pheasants, blue her
ons, and other water fowl
that depend on this area for
food and shelter. Or, should
I say we did. 1 know that
not every water fowl nests
where they will be washed
away, but feeding has been
severely curtailed. This
is spring, nesting, eggs,
young,” she said.
Laurie Rice of the
Corps of Engineers, and a
Willow Creek operator, said
she was not monitoring the
lake inflow or creek outflow
on June 1, but did respond
to Barrow’s email and de
fended the release, say
ing there was unexpected
rainfall gathering behind
the dam. “When I left the
office on Thursday (May
27) there was no indication
that the inflow would come
up as high as it did. As you
noted, there had been rain
all month and we had not
seen flows go nearly as high
in the area. There is not a
river forecast for the creek
and as I’m sure you know
T he w ater level of Willow C reek cam e up suddenly and u n an
nounced Ju n e 1, causing an g er w ith the C o rp s of Engineers
an d concern for those w ith p ro p erty along the creek. (Photo
tak en in Lexington area.) Photo by David Sykes
from experience, weather
forecasts change frequently.
The snowpack was virtu
ally melted and we had no
reason to believe we would
see the flow fluctuate as
high. The dam is safe, but
the storage above the sum
mer pool is exclusive flood
control space and this was
not a flood event. In fact,
the flow in the creek was
not as high as it reached
the past two years during
the spring freshet (a small
sudden flood or rise in the
level of a river, caused by
heavy rainfall or a rapid
thaw). Rice wrote.
“ I ch eck ed the
creek gage downstream of
the project and the stage
went up one foot when the
flow was increased. I do
not know where you are
located on the creek, but if
you experienced a ‘4 ft wall
of-water’ 1 can only assume
it was from additional con
tribution from other creeks
in the area, local runoff
into the creek downstream
of the dam and/or debris,”
Rice added.
Rice said the Corps
values wildlife and veg
etation along the creek and
would not purposefully
harm them. “We also value
the creek. We work with the
Morrow County Soil and
Water Conservation District
annually to adjust the flows
to allow for the Watershed
Field Day activities which
includes planting willows.
This flow event would have
occurred with or without
the dam and the trees and
wildlife would have ex
perienced the same flow,”
she said.
Barrow said she
was grateful -for having
received a response from
the Corps, since she had
been contacting them for
the last three years with no
response. While Barrow
said the water head might
not have risen quite four
feet, did say that her place
is above Rhea Creek so
there would have been little
contribution from other
creeks, and that Willow
Creek “does not have the
ability to spread out much,
so as it picks up debris, gen
erally the head gets taller."
Barrow wants the
Corps to work closer with
the local people to manage
the water flow and in turn
minimize damage down
stream. She also mentioned
the damage to fishing in the
creek.
“If you truly value
our creek, then you would
pay more attention to its
flow and work with us to
maintain a viable ecosys
tem. I think the Morrow
Soil & Water event you
are talking about is a few
hours o f your dam time
a couple of days a year,”
she said. “Did you know
that our creek had recently
been stocked with fish for
the fishermen? Again if you
truly valued our creek and
this area, you would have
known that this event hap
pens annually, and adjusted
flows to support this. In fact
we have had people ask us
why the fishing on the creek
has deteriorated so much
over the last few years. We
tell them to call the Corps,
and let them know that their
management is very poor,”
Barrow wrote.
“Increm ental re
lease steps would be a good
start, but long term manage
ment would be a better,”
she said.
Rice said the Corps
would try and be more
responsive to local people
in the future. “I can assure
that you that in the future
we will try to make flow
changes in increm ental
steps whenever possible,”
she wrote to Barrow in a
return email.
“I have tried for
the last two years to put
together a distribution list
of irrigators in the area so
they can receive the opera
tions schedules as we send
them out. So far, there has
been very little interest. I
would also like to set up
a calling tree so'that when
flow is going to exceed a
predetermined level, we can
initiate the calling tree and
you and others can inform
your neighbors. Perhaps
you or someone else you
copied on your email is
interested in being added
to the existing distribution
list or spearheading the
calling tree," Rice wrote to
Barrow.
Office Search and Rescue,
Heppner Fire Department,
and Morrow County Road
Department.
At 9 p.m. the search
was disbanded due to night
fall, but, at 3:15 a.m. Kusel
was located by Tim Collins
of the United States Foreset
Service who had continued
to search throughout the
night. Kusel, who had been
missing for 17 hours, had Irrigon High School senior arrested on sodomy charges
spent the night in a shelter
According to the tectives responded to in- at Irrigon High School and
that she had set up. She was Morrow County Sheriff's vestigate and determined was scheduled to graduate
found wet, sore, and cold. Office, they received a call that the crime had happened June 4. He was transported
from Good Shepherd Hos earlier that day.
and lodged in the Umatilla
pital on Wednesday, June
MCSO later a r County Jail on three counts
2, regarding an 18 year old rested Heman Hernandez of Sodomy in the First De
FSA county executive director moving to Nebraska woman who had been sexu Vera, 19, of Irrigon at his gree. Total bail was set at
residence. Vera was a senior $150,000.
Darcy Vial, coun county executive director executive director of the ally assaulted in Irrigon.
Deputies and de-
ty executive director for of the FSA in Kearney, NE. Heppner FSA. She cur
the USDA Morrow
Her fiancé, Clint rently is the county ex
County Farm Ser
Sexson, will be tak ecutive director in Sherman
vice Agency, will
ing over his father’s County. She will be transi
AT MCGG GREEN FEED & SEED IN HEPPNER:
work her last day
ranch in Nebraska. tioning into the Heppner job
in the Heppner of
“I'm sad to on June 21.
The FSA handles
fice on Wednesday,
leave Eastern Or
June 30.
egon,” said Vial, programs including con
Vial, who D arcy V ial
“but we’re excited servation, farm program
Napa Universal Fleet Plus Motor O i l ________
has worked the last
to go home and take payments and handles some
two of her three years with over the family ranch.”
crop insurance, as well as
qtto
O C l V C 4)4)4) 1 5 w 40 NOÍ)7512 •
the USDA FSA in Heppner,
Kyi Cantine will adm inisters USDA farm
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will be moving to Nebraska. take Vial’s place as county programs out of the office.
Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed & Seed
She will be working as the
On Saturday, June
5, the M orrow C ounty
Sheriff’s Office from Joyce
Overland reporting that her
sister, Arlene Kusel, 70, of
White City was missing
in the forest south of Hep-
pner. The sisters were in
the Shaw Grade area with
several family members
looking for mushrooms.
A c c o r d i n g to
MCSO, Kusel was sup
posed to be staying near the
vehicles but when the fami
ly returned at approximately
10:15 a.m. she was nowhere
to be found. After looking
for her for approximately
three hours, Overland con
tacted the sheriff’s office.
Deputies and the Morrow
County Mobile Command
Unit were dispatched to
help with the search.
In addition toM.C.
patrol deputies, M.C. OHV
deputies and M.C. Road De
partment brought out AT Vs
for use. Additional person
nel support was provided
by Oregon State Police,
Umatilla County Sheriff’s
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5^9.99 Q
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242 W. Linden Way, Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-6221 (MCGG main office)
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