ADC seeking approval to sell water downstream

Published 3:08 pm Tuesday, March 31, 2015

The lakeside face of the badly aging Wallowa Lake Dam.

Although still under review, a request in early 2014 from Wallowa Lake Dam’s owner, the Associated Ditch Companies, to have 4,200 acre-feet of lake water flow-augmented to agricultural growers in the Umatilla Basin along the Columbia River has drawn unanimous opposition from the six entities that filed written responses.

While much of the dissent registered during the 30-day comment period that ended April 24 last year revolved around the lack of public input surrounding the permit request and where the excess water would come from, comments from the Wallowa’s Future Foundation and from Marc Stauffer, chairman of the Enterprise Planning Commission and president of the Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce, raised other issues.

Others submitting comments were Chad Nash, of Enterprise; Garrett Lowe, of Wallowa; Robert Hipple, of Enterprise; and City of Joseph Attorney Wyatt Baum.

The Wallowa’s Future Foundation (WFF), represented by President Robert Reading and associated with John Lenahan, submitted five pages of response to the application detailing what that nonprofit sees as shortcomings in the application.

Publicly listed as a Joseph-based charitable organization, WFF had $269,877 in total net assets in 2011, according to the NonProfitFacts.com website. At one point in its public response opposing ADC’s permit request, WFF states: “In short, there is no assessment (economic, social, ecological, or otherwise) of how the removal of 4,200 acre feet from the Wallowa basin will impact the binomy. Thus, it cannot be concluded that the application results in the maximum economic development of the waters involved …”

Stauffer’s series of concerns include the possibile vulnerability of Wallowa County during the early months of the proposed April 1 through Oct. 15 water release period when local flooding could become a problem.

Larry Waters, president of the Silver Lake Water Ditch Company — the oldest ditch company in the county — and an ADC board member suggests that much could change if the permit is approved and excess water behind Wallowa Lake Dam is sold. “If we get the dam refurbished (with funding from such sales of water), it would help the whole county,” Waters says.

The problem, as presented by Waters, is that for safety purposes aging Wallowa Lake Dam cannot store more than 72 percent of its capacity, and there are unknown amounts of excess water that are “dumped” into the river at times of the year when mountain flows into Wallowa Lake push the level of the dam beyond its allowed maximum capacity.

At a time when water for agricultural purposes is at a premium throughout the western states, not receiving any monetary return for that “dumped” lake water works against the owners of the privately-owned Wallowa Lake Dam, a group Waters describes as a “bunch of honest farmers.”

Improvements on tunnels, gates, and even flumes leaving Wallowa Lake Dam have been made in the not-too-distant past, but funds to improve safety to store more water beyond the current 72 percent of capacity state mandate have been lacking.

J. R. Cook, director of the Northeast Oregon Water Association, a group with a vital interest in attaining water for agricultural growers in the Umatilla Basin, says he’s well aware of the permit request made to Oregon Water Resources Department by the ADC about one year ago, but has had no recent contact with the owners of Wallowa Lake Dam.

According to Waters, no public disclosure will be made as to the estimated value of the 4,200 acre-feet of water in the event of its release from Wallowa Lake Dam and subsequent withdrawal from the Columbia River by growers in the Umatilla Basin. Cook, however, calculates that such water could compute into many millions of dollars of revenue were such a release of additional irrigation water indirectly infused into Oregon’s economy via farmers, processors, and even grocery outlets.

A frequently asked question is: If circumstances were right, would Umatilla Basin growers be willing to upgrade Wallowa Lake Dam in return for future water from Wallowa Lake?

Cook, actively involved in other water-generating projects in the Umatilla Basin, including pipelines, is very precise in his response. “We would only agree to take excess water, not any water that is needed locally,” he says. “We will not let this turn into a gold rush.” Then Cook turns to the business side of the equation. Speaking for the businessmen he represents, Cook says such an arrangement could only work in a “cash flow for water” agreement that would guarantee the availability of water to the Umatilla Basin on a long-range, or permanent basis.

But before such a possibility even can be aired, the dissenting arguments made by six entities questioning the wisdom behind ADC’s permit application must be addressed and either that application or another future application be approved by the Oregon Water Resources Department.

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