Conservation corner: Water - Doing more with less

Agricultural producers in Wasco County know only too well the tenuous relationship they have with water and how hard it is to preserve and conserve it.

The following are just a few of the things farmers have been doing to conserve and protect water resources:

Besides installing riparian buffers along 324 miles of waterways to address water quality and fish habitat concerns, over 95 percent of the cropland in the county is under direct seed/no-till cropping practices.

This not only saves top soil from being blown around or eroded into creeks, streams and highways; it allows soil microorganisms to thrive and conserves soil moisture.

Farmers have also invested heavily in new farming technology that utilizes GPS to map their fields, enabling the application of farm chemicals only where needed.

These practices reduce the risk of fertilizers and other chemicals entering waterways, save on fuel consumption, and promote healthier crops.

Those who irrigate their crops have installed energy and water efficient pumping systems and have replaced low efficiency sprinklers with high efficiency systems to conserve water.

Irrigation ditch companies are in the process of piping open ditches to prevent water loss, which results in better water returns not only for the irrigators but for the waterways.

In the Fifteenmile Watershed, farmers are voluntarily working with regulatory agencies to address water quality and quantity conditions that threaten fish.

Under the Fifteenmile Action plan to Stabilize Temperatures (FAST), Fifteenmile irrigators are alerted to high temperature/low flow conditions that endanger fish.

During an alert, irrigators who’ve signed up under the FAST program voluntarily shut down irrigation until the danger has passed.

The Conservation District has hired a FAST Coordinator with funding from the Freshwater Trust to oversee the program over the next couple of years.

The Conservation District, in partnership with the Fifteenmile Watershed Council, recently contracted to have a Storage Feasibility Study done in the Fifteenmile Watershed.

This project took a look at the possibility of storing water during winter high water for use later in the season during low creek flows.

This could take some of the summer irrigation burden off from Fifteenmile Creek.

Information concerning projects in Fifteenmile can be found at: http:// www.wascoswcd.org/wcswcd_025.html.

While many farmers are working to conserve surface water flows, others are contending with ground water issues.

In the Fifteenmile and Mosier Watersheds, groundwater depletion is reaching critical stages.

For over 10 years, the Conservation District has been heavily involved in the Mosier Watershed working to identify the reasons why Mosier’s ground water reserves are being depleted at such an alarming rate.

A study was completed in partnership with USGS that showed the culprit is the geological makeup of the Mosier aquifer system.

Whereas most aquifers are associated with cavern structures, Mosier’s is made up of permeable fractured rock saturated with water. This geologic structure is formed from old basalt lava flows and makes it very easy for unlined wells to co-mingle. This basalt structure is also found in the Fifteenmile Watershed.

Currently, the Conservation District has contracted to evaluate wells in Mosier in order to discover which are co-mingling and later on, to take steps to fix them.

As always, funding has been an issue, however, recent developments have cast a ray of sunshine.

The Oregon Legislature recently passed a funding bill which includes $1,000,000 to make grants available to repair, replace, or remediate water wells in the Mosier area.

This wouldn’t have been possible without the highly motivated members of the Mosier Watershed Council, who spotlighted the problems to their representatives.

Information concerning the Mosier Groundwater Project can be found on our website at http://www.wascoswcd.org/wcswcd_024.htm.

In South Wasco County, the Conservation District was able to leverage irrigation upgrade project funds to secure a USDA NRCS Resource Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) match of 1.64 million dollars for irrigation projects through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) contracts.

This project represents a suite of practices that will upgrade irrigation delivery systems and re-water a total of 27 miles of creek (Tygh, Forest, and Threemile Creeks) by the elimination of irrigation ditch diversions.

Included in this is the conversion of flood irrigation practices to pivot with high efficiency sprinklers, laying 63,000 feet of pipe and eliminating 71,000 feet of open irrigation ditches, 1,270 acres of cropland will undergo irrigation upgrades, five wells will replace open ditch irrigation, seven fish screens will be installed, 10 pumping stations, and one bridge built to eliminate a stream crossing. The end result will be more efficient water usage, less waste, better water management, and more water flowing in the creek.

Conservation Corner is provided by Tammy Tripp of the Wasco County Soil and Water Conservation District.