Assisting Communities - Examples of Current Oregon Drinking Water Protection Work

The South Fork Water Board in Clackamas County received a Safe Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund grant in 2011 with five other public water systems with intakes on the Clackamas River to conduct a GIS analysis of drinking water risks identified within the watershed. The GIS analysis will identify areas of highest potential risk to water quality to prioritize source protection actions. The final products will be used to develop additional public and private partners and funding for projects on the ground. Building on DEQ’s inventory and technical assistance, the GIS analysis includes evaluation of threats to water quality from septic systems, agriculture, forestry, urban development, vulnerable soils and permitted discharge sources. In addition, the analysis will lay the foundation for, and identify data needed to develop a watershed emergency response system.

Winston-Dillard Water District has an intake on the South Umpqua River in the Olalla-Looking Glass Watershed in Douglas County. After finding high E. coli bacteria counts in untreated drinking water during Safe Drinking Water Act-required testing, the water district conducted a field survey of the watershed, with DEQ’s assistance, to identify specific concerns and locations of potential contaminant sources. This proactive work served as a catalyst for follow-up actions by Oregon Department of Agriculture, DEQ water quality staff, and Douglas Soil and Water Conservation District to conduct a more intensive assessment of watershed conditions. This information will be used in future efforts to provide site-specific technical assistance to interested landowners, implement on-the-ground restoration projects, and conduct effectiveness monitoring at project sites. 

The Clackamas River Water Providers (six municipal water providers on the Clackamas River that serve over 300,000 people), in partnership with the Clackamas County and Marion Soil and Water Conservation Districts and the Clackamas River Basin Council, received a Clean Water Act 319 nonpoint source grant to hold two Pesticide Round Up Events in 2011. The events served Clackamas and Marion county agricultural growers and other commercial and institutional pesticide users. The two events were very successful, taking in a total of 56,350 pounds of chemical waste from 108 participants. Legacy pesticides (some banned as early as the 1970’s) were collected including DDT, Chlordane and Dioseb. In addition, approximately 1,500 pounds of clean and residue-free, triple-rinsed plastic containers were also accepted for recycling at no charge to producers. See the DEQ fact sheet or the Clackamas River Water Providers website for more information on its pesticide reduction programs.

The City of Florence is served by a vulnerable water system that draws from a sole-source aquifer under federal definitions. OHA and DEQ drinking water staff have worked with the City and the Siuslaw Watershed Council to improve and protect drinking water and area water resources for several years. EPA awarded the City of Florence over $500,000 to work with tribal, federal, state and local partners in the Siuslaw watershed to help with the water quality efforts, as well as protect fish and wildlife habitat within their sole source aquifer study area. Key outcomes of the three-year Siuslaw Estuary Partnership project include an aquifer protection plan to be submitted to DEQ for certification, along with comprehensive plan and policy amendments within land use planning work to protect resources within the aquifer boundary. Florence is also collecting valuable groundwater and surface water monitoring data that will enhance efforts to better understand and improve water quality.   

Forest Grove owns the majority of its forested drinking water source area. After years of timber-extraction-based management, harvest ceased for a 10-year period before the city invested money to create and implement a Forest Stewardship Council certified management plan. Forest Grove has fixed problematic roads and stream crossings, re-vegetated eroding sites and increased the resiliency of forest stands. The positive effects of its management is reflected in both significant reductions in source water turbidity and in revenue for the city. See the City of Forest Grove's website for more information.

Lincoln City has a surface water intake and an infiltration gallery for high-turbidity events, but still faces high risks due to vulnerabilities in its drinking water source area. Industrial timber extraction was identified as a high-risk activity for erosion and landslides in the Source Water Assessment. The city, with DEQ's assistance, has worked to identify land acquisition and ecosystem service options for the past two years. Lincoln City hired a consultant and is working with the local watershed council and other partners to buy a parcel of land owned by Lincoln County (and due to be auctioned) to prevent that parcel from going into industrial timber ownership. This parcel is approximately 35 percent of their drinking water source area. The land acquisition project is the first step in securing and sustainably managing private lands for protection in their drinking water source area.

Initiated in 2009, this drinking water/water quality project developed a Geospatial Information System-based tool for the Tualatin River watershed to identify threats to healthy lands within the watershed for conservation projects and to identify impaired lands for restoration activities. DEQ and The Trust for Public Land were the primary collaborators on the project funded through The Smart Growth Leadership Institute. Entitled “Enabling Source Water Protection: Aligning State land Use and Water Protection Programs,” the project used GIS model-building capabilities and Trust for Public Land custom tools to identify priorities for land conservation, acquisition and natural resources management using over 40 geospatial data layers in a geospatial environment. The resulting data analysis is housed at DEQ and made available on a protected website for use by project stakeholders within the watershed, including public water systems, waste treatment faculties, Metro, Natural Resource Conservation Service, DEQ, Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, cities, counties, EPA, USGS, local watershed councils, The Nature Conservancy and River Network. The project tools have been used in several key programs and projects already, including Joint Water Commission, Trust for Public Land (Oregon office), Clean Water Services, DEQ’s TMDL implementation, DEQ’s Watershed Analysis and Planning and Metro. The project methodology and results can be replicated in other drinking water source areas and will serve as a template for this GIS tool development for drinking water.

The City of Irrigon developed new public water system groundwater wells in 2007 to replace wells lost due to nitrate contamination. The two new wells are shallow and located near the Columbia River. The wells immediately tested positive for nitrate and started to show increasing nitrate levels. The city requested help from the Governor’s Office and state agencies tasked with preventing groundwater contamination. DEQ and OHA collaborated on a new Source Water Assessment document for the city in 2011. This served as a basis for understanding the risks of nitrate and other contaminants affecting the new wells. The city was awarded a Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund grant in 2011 to protect the groundwater source area and convened a local task force with other agencies to develop a sampling and analysis plan and start on an interim outreach project for nitrate reductions.