Les Zaitz's two-part series on Oregon water issues concludes in today's print edition of The Oregonian.
Here is Part 1.
Zaitz's story is still in the Umatilla Basin, but this time the emphasis is on politics, and how a small group of powerful people managed to get the state to fund the Oasis Project - a plan to recharge Columbia River water into an aquifer during the high-flow season, then pump it out in the summer when the irrigation demand is high. [Discloure notice: I am a technical reviewer for the group conducting the feasibility study for the Oasis Project.]
What's that about water flowing to power and money?
As an aside, let me put in a plug for the necessity of a Columbia River Basin compact among the basin states. Things are only going to get uglier here.
"This isn't about science or biology. This is about politics." -- Bob Hale, Hermiston, OR, farm executive, quoted in the article.
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