Water News

“The State Must Do More” — Lawmakers Weigh How to Protect Dry Lake Abert

By Rob Davis |  Jan. 25, 2022   |  The Oregonian State lawmakers and environmental groups responded to an investigation by The Oregonian into the state’s failure to protect Lake Abert, Oregon’s only salt lake, by promising oversight hearings and calling for immediate action to restore the migratory bird stop that has run dry twice […]

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Oregon’s Lake Abert is “In Deep Trouble.” The State Shut Down Its Effort to Figure Out Why

By Rob Davis  |  Jan. 16, 2022  |  The Oregonian When Oregon’s only saltwater lake mysteriously dried up in 2014, turning a vibrant landscape teeming with migratory birds into a desiccated, abandoned salt pan, state environmental regulators mobilized. Lake Abert, a 64-square-mile lake in south central Oregon’s high desert, had gone almost completely dry for

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Jim McCarthy of WaterWatch Discusses the Klamath Basin on OPB’s Think Out Loud

By Elizabeth Castillo and David Miller  |  July 13, 2021  |  Oregon Public Broadcasting David Miller from Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Think Out Loud spoke with Jim McCarthy, Southern Oregon program director for WaterWatch, about our longstanding work to protect and restore waterfowl and wetlands in the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex, and took a

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Cheese in the Desert: Why Mega-Dairies Are Piping Water Onto Oregon’s Shrub Steppe

By Dawn Stover  |  May 6, 2021  |  Columbia Insight Author Dawn Stover is an independent journalist based in White Salmon, Washington, and a contributing editor at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Cody Easterday is still waiting for the Oregon Department of Agriculture to approve his application, submitted in June 2019, for a Confined

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Oregon Water Allocation May Complicate “Live Flows” Irrigation

By Mateusz Perkowski  |  Jan. 8, 2021  |  Capital Press Oregon irrigators may face complications from the commitment of about 1 million acre-feet of water behind Willamette Valley dams to in-stream environmental purposes. Until now, state water regulators have treated water released from the 13 dams as “live flows,” which can be accessed by irrigators

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Fishing and Environmental Groups File Suit in Eugene Over Umpqua River Dam

Gillian Flaccus  |  Nov. 11, 2020  |  Associated Press A coalition of environmental and fishing groups are suing a water district in southern Oregon over an aging, privately owned dam that they say hinders the passage of struggling salmon populations in the pristine North Umpqua River. The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in

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WaterWatch Statement: Seeking Justice

WaterWatch of Oregon stands among those calling for racial justice and accountability after the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless other people of color at the hands of law enforcement and/or white supremacists. The brutal and horrific killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer compels us to express solidarity

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Debate Over Canal Piping Heats Up

Conservationist urges irrigation districts to focus on water markets by Michael Kohn | April 10, 2020 | Bend Bulletin For decades, Rob Rastovich relied on flood irrigation to water the hay fields on his family-owned ranch outside Bend. The system was archaic and wasted large amounts of water, which ran off the edge of his 200-acre

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Murmurs: Businesses Seek Relief From Tax Measures (See: Salmon Wars Continue)

By WW Staff | March 18, 2020 | Willamette Week   BUSINESSES SEEK TAX MEASURE RELIEF: Oregon business groups, facing crushing pressure from COVID-19 impacts, on March 17 proposed 14 steps the state could take to help. Among the biggest: “Delay implementation of the new corporate activities tax, at least for the first quarter of 2020, so

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WaterWatch of Oregon’s Rogue Dam Removals Highlighted in Conservation Alliance Video

by The Conservation Alliance | January 2020 | The Conservation Alliance: Rogue River from Uncage the Soul Productions on Vimeo WaterWatch of Oregon is proud of our role in the dam removal efforts happening along The Rogue River. Of course, many other organizations have played key roles in these projects. Some of these efforts have

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The Statesman Journal: January 2020: “Proposal to Demolish Crumbling Scotts Mills Dam Gaining Momentum”

by Bill Poehler, Statesman Journal | January 2020 | The Statesman Journal The first time Anna Rankin went to the Scotts Mills Dam, she noticed crosses and flowers on the banks below the dam. When Rankin, the executive director of the Pudding River Watershed Council, asked about the markers, she learned there had been a

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The Statesman Journal: December 2019: “Farmers Band Together to Stop Dam from Being Built on Drift Creek”

by Bill Poehler, Statesman Journal | December 2019 | The Statesman Journal Joel Rue welcomed a group of fellow farmers and friends into his home in Victor Point, located in a canyon between Silverton and Silver Falls State Park, in 2005. Over the next few hours, the farmers from around Mt. Angel explained how for

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Officials Explain Benefits of Drawing Water from the Willamette River

By Peter Wong  |  Nov. 27, 2019  |  Hillsboro News-Times When the largest public works project in Washington County is completed seven years from now, it will draw millions of gallons from the Willamette River and deliver the water to Hillsboro, the Tualatin Valley Water District (TVWD), and Beaverton. For Hillsboro, the Willamette Water Supply

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Guest Opinion: Crystal Ball: Irrigators, Feds Play Trump Cards to Shortchange the Deschutes and Crooked Rivers

by John DeVoe, WaterWatch Executive Director | 25 Sept 2019 | The Bend Source Weekly   On Oct. 4, a long awaited proposal from eight irrigation districts and the City of Prineville called a Habitat Conservation Plan (Plan) will be made public. The Plan, and an accompanying draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will outline and

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Interview with WaterWatch Executive Director John DeVoe on XRAY Radio’s Non-Profit Happy Hour

Recently, WaterWatch executive director John DeVoe sat down with Phil Busse, journalist and host of XRAY Radio’s “The Non-Profit Hour.” The two talked about all things water during a leisurely half-hour conversation that also included tidbits on Handel and James McMurtry’s “Levelland.” Click to listen to their conversation.

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Rights to water stored by Willamette dams up for grabs; cities, farmers, fish compete

FOR 30 YEARS, POWERFUL OREGON INTERESTS INCLUDING CITIES, FARMERS, INDUSTRY AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS HAVE BEEN SLUGGING IT OUT FOR ACCESS TO THE WATER. Bill Poehler and Tracy Loew, Salem Statesman Journal Published 6:00 a.m. PT May 29, 2019 | Updated 9:21 a.m. PT May 30, 2019 Billions of gallons of water have been hidden behind the

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Klamath Advocates Condemn Destruction of the “Everglades of the West”

Klamath Advocates Condemn Bureau of Reclamation’s Willful Destruction of the “Everglades of the West” Conservationists Call on Gov. Kate Brown, Senators Wyden and Merkley to Stop Likely Catastrophic Waterfowl Die-Off, Hold Bureau Accountable for Longstanding Waste and Abuse Contacts: Jim McCarthy, WaterWatch of Oregon, (541) 708-0731 Bob Sallinger, Audubon Society of Portland, (503) 380-9728 Steve Pedery,

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State officials let mega-dairy use loophole to tap endangered Oregon aquifer

State officials let mega-dairy use loophole to tap endangered Oregon aquifer By: Tracy Loew, Statesman Journal   March 22, 2018 A year after it opened, Oregon’s second-largest dairy has not secured rights to the nearly 1 million gallons of water per day it needs for its thousands of cows and to process milk. Instead, Lost Valley Farm near Boardman moved ahead

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Draining Oregon: Lawmaker strips specific dollar amounts out of water fee bill, Oregonian,

Draining Oregon: Lawmaker strips specific dollar amounts out of water fee bill By Andrew Theen The Oregonian/OregonLive Apr 19, 2017 A House committee gave its blessing this week to a bill that would charge an annual fee to tens of thousands of Oregon water rights holders — but not without a last second twist.

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