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

By Mateusz Perkowski  |  Jan. 8, 2021  |  Capital Press Farmers, under new federal law, have gained access to about 328,000 acre-feet of water stored behind 13 dams in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. However, they’d be wise to wait until further regulatory processes are finished before installing irrigation structures to take advantage of the newly available

By Matuesz Perkowski  |  Dec. 24, 2020  |  The Other Oregon Agriculture in Oregon’s Harney Basin faces a situation akin to being chased by an aggressive dog, according to farmer Mark Owens. Irrigators realize it’s going to hurt, he says, but they won’t know how much until it actually “bites them in the ass.” “Change

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

By Mateusz Perkowski  |  Oct 8, 2020  |  Capital Press Critics of large dairies are asking Oregon water regulators to limit new groundwater pumping by such operations within 257 square miles of Umatilla and Morrow counties. A coalition of environmental groups and others called Stand Up to Factory Farms has submitted a petition asking the

By Brian Posewitz  |  June 13, 2020  |  Register Guard The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers owns 13 reservoirs on major tributaries to the Willamette River, including well-known reservoirs such as Fern Ridge on the Long Tom, Lookout Point on the Middle Fork of the Willamette, Cougar on the South Fork of the McKenzie and

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

Environmental groups say the Army Corps of Engineers’ reallocation plan will hurt threatened fish species by Emily Green | March 20, 2020 | Street Roots  The Army Corps of Engineers has proposed a drastic cut to the volume of water stored among its 13 dams and reservoirs in the Willamette River Basin that goes to

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

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

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

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

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

by WaterWatch of Oregon Staff | 5 Aug 2019 | Bend Source Weekly On Sunday, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown issued a press release that House Bill 2437 is one of the bills that she may veto before Aug. 9. WaterWatch of Oregon is urging the Governor to indeed veto this bill. We also want to

The state has done little to prevent water scarcity as climate change and population growth take hold by Emily Green | 5 Jul 2019 | StreetRoots 2015 was not a good year for water in Oregon. It was the third year in a row of drought. As spring and summer slogged on, 25 counties across the

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.

The two bills present a test for Gov. Kate Brown. By Nigel Jaquiss | 12 Jun 2019 | Willamette Week Last month, Portland commemorated the 71st anniversary of the Vanport Flood, which killed 15 people and displaced 40,000 from a black neighborhood in North Portland. But state officials may not have learned all the lessons

By Bill Poehler and Tracy Loew  |  May 29, 2019  |  Salem Statesman Journal For 30 years, powerful Oregon interests including cities, farmers, industry, and environmentalists have been slugging it out for access to water. Since they were constructed in the 1930s, billions of gallons of water have been hidden behind the Willamette River Basin’s