By Kristine Thomas
If a neighboring farmer needed to borrow equipment, Victor Point farmer Joel Rue wouldn’t hesitate to lend it.
There’s an unwritten rule about farmers helping a fellow farmer, he said. That’s what makes the current disagreement with farmers belonging to the East Valley Water District (EVWD) unpleasant.
“I consider many of the farmers in the East Valley Water District as friends,” Rue said.
Rue and several other Victor Point farmers are opposed to the district’s proposal to build a reservoir on their land. If the reservoir is built, it will flood the property of more than 10 farmers, several of whom are fourth generation landowners.
“Why are their farms more important than my farm?” Bruce Jaquet asked. The proposed reservoir would flood his flat land leaving him without access to other portions of his property. Water would also envelop a house and outlying buildings on his land.
There is an area of agreement. Both Victor Point farmers and East Valley district members see the need to create a new water resource. The disagreement centers on the district’s proposal to go outside its boundaries to build a reservoir.
“Although I recognize water for agriculture as well as municipal use is becoming limited, this project is very short sighted and ultimately would benefit only a few farmers in the Mount Angel area,” Rue wrote to the Oregon Water Resource Department (OWRD).
He cited Victor Point farmers’ concerns about losing their land, the impact on fish and wildlife, and questioned if the site will be safe in the event of an earthquake. Questions also have been raised about the proposed reservoir being built with public money and, if built, how water would be transported from Victor Point to Mount Angel and beyond.
EVWD board chairman Dave Bielenberg also wrote to the OWRD.
visit www.eastvalleywd.com.
“While current project design would inundate approximately 340 acres of land in a valley with a fairly flat bottom surrounded by rolling forested hills with some agricultural land, the project would allow for a sustainable, economical water supply for over 15,000 acres of high value agricultural land in Marion and Clackamas counties. The District understands that the project will affect some landowners and we will make every effort to answer and respond to questions, and address concerns,” he wrote.
At a May 6 meeting of landowners, Bielenberg and fellow EVWD board member Duane Eder, the Victor Point property owners raised several questions. At the June EVWD board meeting, Jaquet and Steve Lierman said they are still waiting for answers.
The Victor Point landowners emphasized the project is unanimously opposed in their area, and they are tired of fighting the project. They suggested an alternate location for the reservoir, the land associated with the former Mallorie Dairy on Hazelgreen Road north of Silverton.
Bielenberg said one reason the district had not provided answers to the questions is because it doesn’t have them yet.
“We are still in the middle of investigations,” Bielenberg said. “We don’t want to share information until we have the answers because we don’t want to give the wrong information. We are being very cautious about what we are sharing because we don’t want to give half the story.”
“A lot of things have to come together before we can move forward and provide answers,” EVWD vice chairman Glenn Goschie said.
Bielenberg said he and his fellow board members are willing to negotiate with the Victor Point farmers.
“What they are saying to us is ‘no.’ They haven’t indicated a willingness to negotiate,” Bielenberg said. “We want to treat everyone fairly and equably, but we really see a need for this project and the need for water in the future.”
The EVWD board, which also includes members Ryan Eder and Kevin Loe, looked at several water supply strategies and more than 75 sites before choosing Drift Creek because, according to the district website, it “fits the criteria for providing a sustainable water source now and in the future.”
Bielenberg emphasized the boundaries of the proposed reservoir have not been set. According to the website, the project’s current proposed location is on Drift Creek near the junction of Victor Point and Fox roads. The water would be stored in the winter and released during the summer. Bielenberg and Goschie said the district doesn’t yet have a plan for how water would be transported from the reservoir to the EVWD farms. The cost to build the reservoir is estimated at about $60 million, they said.
For now, both the district and the Victor Point landowners are waiting to see if OWRD grants a water right permit to the EVWD. As of June 25, Oregon Water Resources Senior Policy Coordinator Racquel Rancier said the permit is still pending. A decision should be made within the next month, she said, adding if the permit is granted there will be a public comment period.
One concern of the Victor Point landowners is the possible use of eminent domain to acquire the land. While Bielenberg acknowledges the district has that authority, he said the district prefers not to acquire land in that manner.
“The statute, however, does not enable the district to simply take the land and land value; rather, the district would be required to fully and fairly compensate landowners as with an exercise of eminent domain authority, ” Bielenberg wrote.
Lauren Reese, who works for Integrated Water Solutions, serves as a facilitator and communications specialist for the EVWD. The Drift Creek area was first identified as a potential site for a reservoir in the 1950s by the USDA Soil and Water Conservation Service. It was also listed in a 1993 study of possible solutions following an OWRD directive to find an alternate water supply. The EVWD board has looked at several sites since it was established in 2002. It began considering Drift Creek in 2006.
Reese said the Drift Creek study has been funded by EVWD members, $310,468 in OWRD grants, and legislative appropriations. OWRD grants require the district to match funds. In 2013, the Oregon Legislature appropriated $500,000 to the district, Reese said. The appropriation provided funding to complete environmental and technical analyses.
“The district has not expended all these funds as they are currently being used to fund the studies needed during the permitting process,” Reese said.
Why water is needed
The district has 75 members with more than 36,000 acres on farms south of Molalla and Woodburn to north of Silverton and between the Pudding River on the west and Cascade Mountains on the east. Water comes from individual farm wells and direct withdrawals from local surface waters.
According to the district website, “Limited surface water supplies and lowering ground water levels make the development of a new surface water source an imperative. … Nearly three square miles of high-value irrigated agriculture is at risk without the development of a safe, sustainable water supply development project.”
Bielenberg compares the need for a new water source to a “clock that is ticking and no one knows when the alarm will go off.”
He points to a May report by the U.S. Drought Monitor that stated there are drought conditions in more than half of the U.S. with “nearly 15 percent of the country in extreme to exceptional drought.”
“We have been directed to find alternative water sources,” Bielenberg said. “The drought in California and in other parts of the US has raised awareness.”
He said EVWD farmers are using methods to conserve water, but that won’t solve the long-term problem. Bielenberg pointed out even if a permit is granted by OWRD, there will be more public comment and it could take up to 10 years to fund and build a reservoir.
“I think we are seeing in Oregon, as we are seeing around the country, that there is less water stored as snow pack. We have to store water in liquid form somehow,” Bielenberg said. “All our preliminary studies show Drift Creek is a viable project.”
Bielenberg is frustrated trying to explain why there is a water shortage in Oregon.
“When it is raining outside, it’s hard to convince folks there is a problem. I don’t know how to get folks to understand this is a long-range project for the county, area and state,” Bielenberg said. “We need to plan for the future so we have water when we will need it.”
Tom Fox’s family has farmed in the Victor Point area for 105 years. “If the reservoir were to go in, the part of my land it would impact is about 100 acres and it is Class 1 soil, the best we have on the farm,” Fox said.
His concerns center on the lack of a clearcut plan on exactly where the reservoir will be and how the water will be transported.
“They are not trying to explain what they want to do. Where is the pipeline going to go and whose property down the way is the pipeline going to go through? There are hundreds of people this project will impact if goes through, and some people don’t even know about it yet,” Fox said. “The volume of water going through a pipeline would be tremendous.”
Instead of pursing water in the Drift Creek area, he said the EVWD should find a more cost-effective and efficient water system.
At May’s meeting between Victor Point landowners and EVWD representatives, several points of contention were raised – from geological faults, to the hazards of seasonal mudflats, to a negative impact on salmon, wildlife and archaeological resources. Both sides have already engaged attorneys and technical experts to review the proposal.
Rue wrote to the OWRD that the “district has also chosen not to notify landowners downstream where the conduit of the stored water could flow. The silence of this whole project to affected landowners is no doubt a response to being shut down at two previous locations. This reservoir and conduit would demolish homes and property and ultimately change the serenity of hundreds of acres.”
He suggested it would be less expensive for EVWD farmers to build reservoirs on their own land.
