Another Dam Bites the Dust By Dennis Newman Natural Oregon April 02, 2009 Derided by environmentalists as a “fish killer”, next week marks the beginning of the end for Savage Rapids Dam on the Rogue River near Grants Pass. After it’s gone, almost 126 miles of the Rogue will be free flowing. It starts […]
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Legislative “Odd Couple” Tackles Water Issues By Chris Lehman Oregon Public Broadcasting March 26, 2009 One of Mark Twain’s many famous quotes is: “Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over.” Nowhere is that more true than in the west. The Oregon Legislature has spent the better part of its history untangling fights
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Stimulus spurs county on Gold Ray Dam removal By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune March 22, 2009 Jackson County officials plan to seek $5 million from the federal stimulus package to help fast-track the possible removal of 105-year-old Gold Ray Dam from the Rogue River as early as the summer of 2010. 100 years of
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Rough debut for Columbia water bill By Mitch Lies Capital Press February 19, 2009 SALEM – It was, as John DeVoe of WaterWatch said, deja vu all over again in a House committee hearing Tuesday, Feb. 17, on a bill calling for summer water withdrawals from the Columbia River. Many of the same players
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Senate OKs surcharge for Klamath dam removal By Matt Preusch and Ted Sickinger Oregonian February 17, 2009 The Oregon Senate passed a bill Tuesday to pay for removing four Klamath River dams with a 2 percent surcharge on the Oregon ratepayers of Pacific Power. Senate Bill 76 was approved 18-12 on largely partisan lines
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Metolius resort may face water snag By Nick Budnick Bend Bulletin February 14, 2009 Talks are under way on Ponderosa’s well plan, but it may go to a judge SALEM — The Ponderosa Land and Cattle Co. wants to drill as many as 10 wells 1,000 feet into the earth to draw water for the
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Bill would pass cost of Klamath Dam removal to ratepayers By Matthew Preusch Oregonian February 03, 2009 A plan to pass much of the tab for removing Klamath River dams to Oregon power users gets its first hearing in Salem today. The bill is considered a critical step in a larger agreement amongst farmers,
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Water districts compete for a big drink from the Clackamas River With population growth coming down the pipe, communities look to the future By Yuxing Zheng The Oregonian September 22, 2008 Growth – Communities looking to have enough water for a population boom may wind up before a judge LAKE OSWEGO — There are
A creek runs through it By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune September 14, 2008 The dam has been notched and water has started to find its way. Now all that’s needed is for the fish to return Timeline of Elk Creek Dam Elk Creek Dam was originally authorized as part of the Rogue Basin’s trio
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Smart Water Usage: Methods Abound for Prudent Management By Stefanie Knowlton Statesman Journal (pdf) August 22, 2008 Landscapes account for about half of all the residential water use in Oregon during the summer. Save money and water with landscape planning that features a focus on water conservation. Gadgets and Gauges Even if you don’t have
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Gold Hill Diversion Dam Removal: An Accomplishment to Celebrate July 16, 2008 At 10:00 AM on Wednesday, July 16th WaterWatch joins project partners and elected officials in celebrating the removal of the Gold Hill Diversion Dam Removal. This cement diversion dam is the second greatest barrier to fish passage in the Rogue River. The
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End of a controversial dam By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune July 16, 2008 Explosives launch a $7.9 million project to notch Elk Creek Dam for salmon recovery TRAIL — The crack of explosives Tuesday sent waves of concrete crumbling and launched a plume of dust skyward, signaling the beginning of the end to Elk Creek
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Gold Hill Celebrates Dam Removal By Chris Jones KTVL News 10 July 16, 2008 They’re celebrating in Gold Hill as crews prepare to remove the Gold Hill Dam. Part of the dam was torn out last week and the rest will be gone by the end of the month. Before long you’ll be able to
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Farewell, Gold Hill diversion dam By Buffy Pollock Mail Tribune July 13, 2008 Gold Hill celebrates the removal of a fish-blocking dam on the Rogue River GOLD HILL — Residents and local officials will bid a long-overdue farewell Wednesday to one of the biggest fish barriers on the Rogue River in an official “dam breaking
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Feds tell irrigators Klamath salmon need more water Ag Weekly (AP) June 23, 2008 GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Federal fisheries biologists want more water in the Klamath River to keep coho salmon from heading closer to extinction. After evaluating the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s latest plans for splitting water between irrigators and fish,
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Salmon runs on Rogue expected to revive once dams come down By Matthew Preusch Oregonian June 09, 2008 One of Oregon’s storied rivers is on the cusp of a major makeover. What’s happening on the Rogue River isn’t so much transformation as reversion. Dams built during the previous century will come down. Reservoirs will
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Rogue River dams to come down By Matthew Preusch Oregonian June 08, 2008 Salmon runs are expected to grow in iconic Oregon river GRANTS PASS — One of Oregon’s iconic rivers is on the cusp of a major makeover. What’s happening on the Rogue River isn’t so much transformation as reversion. Dams built during the
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State Needs Innovative, Aggressive Water Solutions By Peter Gleick Pacific Institute June 01, 2008 A version of this essay was originally printed in the Sacramento Bee on June 1, 2008. For more than a decade, California has had relatively adequate winter rains and mostly full reservoirs. No longer. We had the opportunity to fix many of
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The End of an Era By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune May 16, 2008 Credit: Mail Tribune ROGUE RIVER — As the last steel panel descended by crane and slipped into place at Savage Rapids Dam, Grants Pass Irrigation District Manager Dan Shepard was too distracted to relish history. His eyes were riveted on three GPID
Un-Damming Elk Creek: Controversial Rogue River dam to make way for salmon By Camilla Mortensen Eugene Weekly May 15, 2008 More than 20 years after its construction was halted in 1987, the Elk Creek Dam, which has long blocked endangered salmon runs in the Rogue River Basin, is coming down. Mostly, anyway. The Army
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NEC weighs stance on Klamath agreement By John Driscoll Times-Standard May 14, 2008 Scientific and legal reviews commissioned by the Northcoast Environmental Center may have the environmental group reconsidering its position not to support the Klamath River settlement agreement hatched earlier this year. Utah State University Klamath researcher Thomas Hardy wrote to the NEC
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New dam proposals restart 1970s-era fights By Colin Sullivan (ClimateWire) EarthNews May 07, 2008 ClimateWire: SAN FRANCISCO — Wallace Stegner, the chronicler of the American West, had a simple response when asked to explain the economics of California. “Water,” he said famously. “It’s about the water.” Stegner’s truism is relevant now more than ever.
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Don’t rush toward flawed Klamath deal By Steve Pedery and Bob Hunter Times-Standard May 02, 2008 Recent Times-Standard My Word columns (Greg King, March 20; Felice Pace, March 26; Walter Duffy, April 7) make clear that the long history of water battles in the west is far from resolved. Some raise concerns over river
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Sorting through our salmon mystery By Tim Harmon Oregonian May 02, 2008 As the owner of one of the oldest charter companies on the West Coast, I’ve been asked many times lately about where all the salmon have gone this year. Good question. My charter service has the most experienced captains on the coast,
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Water Trade-Off Bolsters Rivers By James Sinks Bend Bulletin April 22, 2008 SALEM — The straws are drilled deep underground, sucking more water to satisfy the thirst of development across Central Oregon. Yet at the same time, there’s more water flowing down the Deschutes River during the dry summer months when once it ran low.
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Oregon consortium to evaluate Umatilla Basin aquifer recovery Columbia Basin Fish & Wildlife News Bulletin April 18, 2008 The Oregon Water Resources Department this week signed a $750,000 contract with an Oregon-based consortium led by IRZ Consulting, GSI Water Solutions, and HDR Engineering to evaluate the feasibility of a “Umatilla Basin Aquifer Recovery Project.”
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Feds failed salmon on delta water pumping, judge says Oregonian article on the federal court ruling on increasing pumping of water from the Sacramento River Delta. By Michael Milstein Oregonian April 17, 2008 A federal court ruling Wednesday involving California’s water supply may lead to extra help for the collapsing salmon population that supports
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Endangered Newsweek article on the state of Oregon’s salmon-fishing industry. By Winston Ross Newsweek April 16, 2008 College didn’t take, and logging threatened to kill him, so Jared Reeves followed in his father’s wake and climbed aboard a salmon troller in 2005, lured by the prospect of a six-figure income in a single summer out
The Trouble With Salmon New York Times editorial about the decision of the federal government to shut down commercial salmon fishing along the California coast to north-central Oregon. New York Times April 15, 2008 The federal government’s decision to shut down commercial salmon fishing from the California coast to north-central Oregon is a blow
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Lawmakers aren’t so easy to pigeonhole Opinion article on urban and rural accomplishments in the Oregon legislature. By Richard Devlin Oregonian April 11, 2008 When speaking of Oregon’s “urban-rural divide,” our discussions do mainly that — they divide us. Unfortunately, The Oregonian’s editorial board has perpetuated that division with its characterization of urban dwellers
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Coastal voices: As it stands, river pact won’t protect fish Opinion article on the draft Klamath settlement proposal. By Steve Pedery and Bob Hunter Daily Triplicate April 03, 2008 Triplicate reporter Michelle Ma’s recent series on the Klamath Basin (“The Future of the Klamath”) makes clear that the long history of water battles in the
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Exciting Progress in Removing Fish Killer OWEB reports on the Savage Rapids Dam Removal Project. By OWEB Oregon.gov March 18, 2008 Six years ago the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) invested over $3 million in the Savage Rapids Dam Removal Project. At the time, the Savage Rapids Dam Project was the single largest OWEB
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A legal victory for the Deschutes Bend Bulletin February 17, 2008 This week, a federal judge blessed the Swalley Irrigation District’s plan to pipe a section of leaky canal. The ruling caps more than two years of legal wrangling and comes, no doubt, as a relief to most Swalley members. But in a larger
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A region’s vitality, melting away Article on the impact of the melting of Mt. Hood’s glaciers. By Michael Milstein Oregonian February 11, 2008 HOOD RIVER — The melting of Mount Hood’s signature glaciers raises a crucial question for the region: How much do we depend on them and the cool meltwater they pour into
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Another View: Fish are key to deal on Klamath Opinion column by Hoopa Valley Tribe’s Chairman Lyle Marshall regarding the draft Klamath settlement proposal. Sacramento Bee February 10, 2008 As chairman of the Hoopa Valley Reservation, which has the Klamath and Trinity rivers running through it, I want to clarify my tribe’s position regarding
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A new test for Oregon’s salmon plan Editorial on the re-listing of Oregon’s coastal coho. Oregonian February 09, 2008 Oregon’s unique state-federal partnership for salmon recovery was left floating belly-up this week after a federal decision to return the state’s coastal coho to the endangered species list. Collapse of the joint program comes as
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Water shortage back before lawmakers Article on the proposed Umatilla basin aquifer storage plan. By Dean Brickey and Mitch Lies East Oregonian January 30, 2008 SALEM – Oregon lawmakers in special session beginning Monday will consider budgeting $750,000 for a feasibility study to determine if groundwater recharge can work in the Umatilla Basin. The
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Walden cuts pressure for fast action on water pact Herald and News editorial on the draft Klamath settlement proposal. By Pat Bushey Herald and News January 30, 2008 The proposed settlement of Klamath River water issues deserves better than a quick decision. It’s too big, too complex and too expensive for that treatment. People
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Maybe we can turn the clock back Daily Astorian editorial regarding the draft Klamath settlement proposal. Daily Astorian January 22, 2008 Negotiations in the Klamath Basin could lead to PacifiCorp dam removal It’s a rare thing when we have the chance to turn the clock’s hands back and undo a big environmental mistake. That’s what
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Klamath Basin settlement is far from a done deal An editorial in the Redding Record Searchlight on the draft Klamath settlement proposal. Redding Record Searchlight January 22, 2008 The various feuding parties in the Klamath Basin have put a lot of hope into secret talks aimed at resolving the battles over water supply and
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