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Bridging the Headgate in Oregon
Reclamation in Oregon
The State of Oregon is served by three Reclamation Area Offices. Western and central Oregon are served by Reclamation's Lower Columbia Area Office, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with a field office in Bend, Oregon. Eastern Oregon is served by the Snake River Area Office, headquartered in Boise, Idaho. The Klamath Basin is served by the Klamath Basin Area Office in Klamath Falls, Oregon (see map).
In Oregon, Reclamation's Lower Columbia and Snake River Area Offices continue to work closely with local soil and water conservation districts, the NRCS, the State of Oregon and local water users to support salmon recovery demonstration projects in the Pacific Northwest.
The Lower Columbia Area Office has a working agreement with the Grant County Soil & Water Conservation District in central Oregon to support salmon recovery demonstration activities within the John Day River Basin.
The Snake River Area Office has developed working agreements with the Wallowa and Union Soil & Water Conservation Districts within the Grande Ronde Basin of northeastern Oregon.
With local leadership from soil and water conservation districts and the NRCS, Reclamation is providing technical and financial assistance for diversion, and other on-farm reorganization projects to aid in fish passage, habitat restoration, and in-stream flow augmentation. Off-farm, the focus has been on the removal, consolidation, and replacement of push-up diversion dams with permanent diversions providing safe fish passage. On-farm projects have emphasized the reorganization of irrigation systems, to accommodate the elimination and consolidation of diversions, and to reduce overall water diversions and consumptive use.
Oregon Online Irrigation Scheduler
Oregon NRCS is developing an online irrigation scheduler. One key aspect of the scheduler is the use of real time weather data from the Bureau of Reclamation's Agrimet system.
Sharing an Irrigation Engineer
The NRCS and Reclamation in Oregon entered into partnership under the Bridging the Headgate agreement in 1999 for the hiring of a journey level irrigation engineer who would be involved with irrigation quantity and quality projects on both sides of the headgate. The engineer was hired in 2000 and he has been working on Reclamation irrigation delivery (50%) and NRCS on-farm (50%) projects since that time.
This agreement has been beneficial to all signatories of the national agreement through the saving of irrigation water on both sides of the headgate.
Snake River Area Office
"Bridging the Headgate" Projects – 1998-2004
2004 Malheur Watershed Council: Technical and financial support of water measurement and control projects on small diversions on N. Fork Malheur River.2000-2002 Wallowa Co. (OR) SWCD: Water Conservation demos for salmon habitat (diversion consolidation, lateral piping, gravity pressure for sprinklers).
1999-2002 Union Co. (OR) SWCD: Water Conservation demos for salmon habitat (diversion consolidation, measurement, ditch lining).
2001 Baker Co. (OR) Association of Conservation Districts: On-farm conservation demos – water measurement, on-farm application improvements, fish screens on small diversions.
1999 Wallowa (OR) SWCD: Water measurement and control improvements on salmon stream.
1998-1999 Baker County (OR) Association of Conservation Districts: On-farm irrigation demos including gravity pressure pipelines and gated pipe in Baker and Burnt River SWCD’s.
Lower Columbia Area Office (BOR)
"Bridging the Headgate" Projects – 1998-2004
1999 - present Oregon State Office of NRCS: Interagency Agreement to cost share on an irrigation engineer to provide technical assistance to irrigation districts.
2003 Deschutes County SWCD: Irrigation Water Management Study – to evaluate and quantify the amount of water saved due to changed irrigation practices by average water users in Deschutes Co.
2001 Sherman County SWCD: Provide water measurement equipment (flow meters).
Lower Columbia Area Office - Portland, Oregon
In central Oregon, the Lower Columbia Area Office has developed a staffing agreement with the NRCS to establish a technical assistance position to support collaborative "Bridging-the-Headgate" conservation activities. The position is administered by the NRCS, co-sponsored by Reclamation, and is responsible for working with local SWCD's, irrigation districts, watershed councils, and other state and federal agencies to coordinate a variety of collaborative water management and conservation activities.
In southwestern Oregon, Reclamation has worked with the Illinois Valley Soil & Water Conservation District on the consolidation and replacement of temporary diversion works with more "fish-friendly" facilities. A video called Discover Alternatives to Push-Up Dams was produced by Reclamation with co-sponsors including Oregon SWCD's, NRCS, BLM, the State of Oregon, and the Rogue Valley Council of Governments. The video highlights the benefits of replacing push-up diversions with permanent diversion structures which have less impact on anadromous fish.
Cooperating with Reclamation, the NRCS in Redmond, Oregon provided technical assistance to the Juniper Flats District Improvement Company to install over 6000 feet of underground pipeline cost-shared by Reclamation. NRCS also assisted Reclamation in the design and installation of several infiltration galleries and pipelines for the Ochoco Irrigation District.
Snake River Area Office - Boise, Idaho
Reclamation's Snake River Area Office entered into an agreement with the Baker County Association of Conservation Districts to provide financial assistance for the demonstration of on-farm water conservation practices. The Baker County Association of Conservation Districts is an association of four SWCD's supporting conservation efforts throughout the agricultural areas of Baker County, Oregon, where three Reclamation storage reservoirs provide supplemental water supplies to irrigated lands in the county. Thus far, the project has funded several gravity-pressure pipeline demonstrations, as well as a gated-pipe demonstration.
Reclamation's Snake River office has recently hired a full-time engineer to specifically work with the NRCS, local SWCD's, and the Grande Ronde Model Watershed, in supporting continuing collaborative water management and conservation activities in northeastern Oregon.
Upper Columbia Area Office - Yakima, Washington
Reclamation's Upper Columbia Area Office is working with the NRCS in Heppner, Oregon, the Morrow County Soil and Water Conservation District, and the Hermiston Irrigation District to encourage better irrigation water management in Oregon's Umatilla Basin through on-farm irrigation system evaluations. Approximately forty field evaluations were conducted by a team of two undergraduate agricultural engineering students from Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo under an agreement with their Irrigation Training and Research Center (ITRC).
Klamath Basin Area Office - Klamath Falls, Oregon
With funding from Reclamation's Klamath Basin Area Office and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Klamath Soil & Water Conservation District developed a comprehensive directory of natural resource agencies and organizations within the Klamath River watershed. Reclamation also provided funding for the Klamath SWCD to develop a report on water conservation opportunities for the Horsefly Irrigation District. The report, Water Conservation Assessment of the Horsefly Irrigation District, was completed by FloSonics, Inc. of Hermiston, Oregon, and CH2MHill.
AgriMet in Oregon
Reclamation operates twenty-two AgriMet weather stations in Oregon, and works closely with NRCS's National Water and Climate Center in Portland, Oregon, to make meteorological data and crop water use information from the AgriMet program available to NRCS, conservation districts, and others throughout the western states. In eastern Oregon, the Union County Soil Conservation District provides financial support for operation and maintenance of an AgriMet station near La Grande, Oregon.
AgriMet information for Oregon is available on the Internet at http://www.usbr.gov/pn/agrimet/.
