FROM PAGE ONE
A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 2021
Project:
Continued from Page A1
Levy said the water proj-
ects are something the state
needs to commit to in the
years to come and not for-
get that the true scope of the
project has yet to be com-
pleted. She added that she
has submitted a $6 million
funding request to fund the
Ordnance Project, the third
of three water projects pro-
posed in 2015 that include
the East Project and West
Project, which was com-
pleted in May 2020.
Higher value crops
Although the primary goal
of the project is to allow for
the recharge of aquifers in the
Columbia Basin, the increase
in consistent water supply will
allow farmers in the region to
grow higher value crops, such
as onions, potatoes and other
produce that yield higher dol-
lar returns per acre.
St. Hilaire said that the
sandy soil and dry climate
requires a lot of water to grow
crops, but when water is plen-
tiful these factors make for
perfect conditions.
“The soil type and the cli-
mate over here are extremely
dry and it requires a lot of
water to grow things,” he
said. “On the fl ip side, if you
have water there are a lot of
diff erent types of high-value
crops you can grow.”
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
IRZ Consulting President Fred Ziari explains the technical specifi cations of the East Project
pumping station from within the facility during a tour of the facility on Tuesday, May 11, 2021.
St. Hilaire said farmers
have been hurt in recent years
by low commodity prices,
and that the ability to switch
to higher value crops not only
helps farms but also the local
economy.
“Water is the critical
resource, so for us it means
the possibility of farm-
ing some high-value crops,
including organic, and having
a consistent source of water
for them,” he said.
All of these advance-
ments in farming would not
be possible without an effi -
cient means of transporting
the water from the Columbia
River.
Technological advancements
aid effi ciency
Fred Ziari, president of
Hermiston-based IRZ Con-
sulting, said of the thousands
of irrigation projects his com-
pany has completed in all
corners of the globe, the East
Project ranked at the top in
both design complexity and
technological advancements.
“We’ve done thousands of
designs all over the world,”
he said. “This is by far the
most advanced system that
we have ever designed and
built.”
For this, Ziari credits not
only his staff , but the farm-
ers behind the project who
he said prioritized technol-
ogy and effi ciency through-
out the project. Ziari said the
main pumping station and
the booster pumps at each
outlet are managed remotely
and can be monitored for
function and fl ow rate from a
cellphone.
“We had foresight from
the farmers,” he said. “They
didn’t want to shortchange
the system, so they wanted
the highest level of technol-
ogy that is totally controlled
and measured 24/7.”
Ziari added that each
pump has a variable-fre-
quency drive allowing it to
scale quickly to the needed
fl ow rate. The pumping sta-
tion is capable of moving up
to 100,000 gallons per min-
ute at peak operation.
Moving that amount water
is no small feat; the pumping
station, located 7 miles east
of McNary on the Colum-
bia River, uses 19,000 horse-
power worth of pumps to
carry the water out of the sta-
tion in an 84-inch diameter
pipe and across 8 miles over
a 500-foot elevation gain.
“It was a labor of love
from our side,” Ziari said.
In addition to technolog-
ically advanced mechanical
equipment, Ziari credits the
use of fi berglass reinforced
pipe (FRP) with keeping
costs down and increasing
the effi ciency of the design.
“First, it’s 35% cheaper
than steel and second, it
has tremendous energy effi -
ciency,” he said. “I would
have needed to add an addi-
tional 3,500 horsepower if I
had steel pipe rather than this
FRP.”
Next steps
For Northeast Oregon
Water Association Direc-
tor J.R. Cook, the dedication
was both a celebration of how
far the project has come and
a reminder of how far they
have to go.
“What we’ve been try-
ing to remind people is this is
just the cornerstone,” he said.
“Now we’ve got the mitiga-
tion program, we’ve got to
get the groundwater savings
program done and we have
a huge project in the Ord-
nance pipeline that needs to
be fi nished.”
Cook said the past few
years have been a constant
struggle to keep everyone up
to date with the project and its
purpose. In addition to transi-
tions in Salem, he said he has
had to ensure that a new gen-
eration of landowners within
the land base are brought up
to speed on the process as
well.
“What made this work
was commitments that we
don’t just use these projects
to go squirt a bunch more
water on, grow a bunch more
vegetables and make more
money,” he said. “It had to be
a uniform eff ort of mitigated
water, groundwater saving all
of the additional benefi ts than
just the fi nancial side.”
Cook said it’s important
to keep up with the pace after
the completion of the pump-
ing station and target that
energy into the mitigation
and groundwater savings that
made it possible. He added
that the process that brought
everyone to the dedication on
Tuesday is worth recognizing.
“The farmers are the ones
that wrote the check and
made it happen, but it’s the
generations of representa-
tives, and like Bobby (Levy)
said – the whole process
itself – is what made this
happen,” said Cook.
“Scramble for Scholarships”
Friday, June 11th
1pm Shotgun Start
Big River Golf Course - Umatilla
Golfers of all skill levels are invited to participate in the 28th annual
“Scramble for Scholarships” golf tournament. Four person teams
can sign up together or individual pairings can be made by the
tournament committee. Your $70 entry fee covers green fees,
a box lunch, and makes a charitable donation to the foundation
to use in awarding scholarships to local medical students.
Register at gschfscramble.eventbrite.com or call
541-667-3405. Entry deadline is June 9th.
Great prize holes and Hole-in-one on #1 & #9
WINS $25,000 towards a new car sponsored by
ROGERS TOYOTA of HERMISTON
SWITCH & GET
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Miguel Ramos-Avelino receives a set of graduation honor cords during the IMESD’s Migrant
Education Program graduation ceremony at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center in
Hermiston on Saturday, May 15, 2021.
Grads:
Continued from Page A1
and fi rst-generation college
graduate from Western Ore-
gon University.
Flores and several other
graduation specialists help
to ensure that students are on
track for graduation and help
them prepare for life after
high school, whether that be
work, trade school or col-
lege. This year, the program
will see 49 students gradu-
ate from high schools across
Umatilla and Morrow coun-
ties, according to Flores.
“We just help our fami-
lies look for resources and
help our students fi gure
out how to get on track,”
she said. “A lot of our stu-
dents are fi rst generation
and although they know
how school works, they
don’t know what they need
to do to reach some of their
goals.”
This year, Migrant Edu-
cation Program staff have
been working especially
hard to navigate the chang-
ing educational landscape as
a result of COVID-19 and
ensure students from pre-
school through high school
have access to the tools and
resources they need.
“With COVID it has been
really hard because a lot
of our families didn’t have
Wi-Fi at home or didn’t
have computers or they had
a shared computer,” Flores
said.
Flores,
and
parent
involvement
specialist
Obdulia Munoz, have seen
an uptick in the involvement
in students’ home lives over
the past year, as they work
to ensure families have the
tools they need to navigate
remote learning and other
COVID-19 issues.
“Instead of just having the
parent meetings that we usu-
ally have during the regular
school year, we try to meet
physical needs like food and
rent and emotional support
with parents,” Munoz said.
Munoz said she works
with outside organizations
to try and get families the
support they may need and
ensure students are able to
continue to thrive in the
school system. According to
Munoz, the Migrant Educa-
tion Program serves roughly
700 families from preschool
through high school, as well
as out-of-school students
who are working and pur-
suing a GED, English lan-
guage classes or other addi-
tional education.
“What I’m trying to bring
with my students is just
showing them that they’re
not alone and provide them
that support that I would
have wanted,” Flores said.
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