“Drop in groundwater perplexes scientists,” reads the headline on the top story in today’s edition of Bend’s Only Daily Newspaper.
Seems those scientists have discovered a “mysterious” drop in the underground water table in the area bounded by Redmond, Prineville and Powell Butte. “One mile south of Redmond, for instance, they’ve seen water levels underground decline nearly 20 feet in the last 15 years,” says the story.
It goes on to explain that the US Geological Survey speculated in 2008 that the decline could be partly due to decreasing rainfall since the 1950s. But that isn’t enough to explain it all, the USGS said: Wells “in the more developed parts of the basin appear to show declines larger than what would be expected due to climate alone.”
If the water table continues to fall, said Kimberley Priestley of the conservation group Water Watch of Oregon, it could lead to – gasp! – restrictions on development. “I would think it would be of interest not only to the state but to developers,” she told The Bulletin. “If we’re seeing declines [in the water table], then that could bring a whole new layer of management.”
The scientists may be “perplexed” (or at least The Bulletin says they are) but the explanation seems pretty obvious to The Eye: All those new lawns and golf courses that have been created in the past 10 or 15 years take a lot of water, and they mostly suck it out of the ground.
We’re hoping some kind of management plan can be developed and enforced for the Central Oregon aquifer before it meets the fate of the Ogallala Aquifer, the vast underground reservoir in the High Plains states that’s being pumped dry at an annual rate equivalent to the flow of 18 Colorado Rivers.
We’re also hoping (without much hope) that the results of the USGS study give pause to those who are screaming “Full speed ahead!” for destination resorts that would pump water out of the Metolius Basin.
Congratulations to The Bulletin for having the integrity to report this story and play it at the top of its front page. We hope its editorial board will have the integrity to draw the logical conclusions.
Gosh ‘n’ gollies – when you pump more water out of the ground than nature puts back in, the water table goes down! Who’d a thunk it?
This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2009.
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A more logical conclusion is to let the scientist do an indepth study and rely on scientific information rather than speculation from a golf course and development hater.
I’m no fan of golf courses or green lawns, but the fact is that the biggest consumer of the water has been and remains agriculture and irrigation. Sure, it’s a ‘money’ crop that the water is going to produce. I am sure the ag sector will defend their use here as they do in Klamath, the Central and Imperial valleys in CA, and all through the Midwest that is sucking the Ogallala dry as agribusiness pushes into areas never meant to produce the water intensive crops we see there.
All of the lawns in Bend could disappear tomorrow–the golf courses could dry up and blow away–and in ten years the water table will not have recovered. We use our water foolishly in CO–we fight the piping of wasteful canals; we splash water all over fields of alfalfa and pastures in an area known as the high desert; we stick more and more straws into the water table–deeper and deeper–sucking more and more out of a water table that took millenia to develop–and decades to destroy.
This happened in the Antelope valley in California. Alfalfa production on thousands of acres sucked Lake Los Angeles Dry, then dropped he water table from less than 100 feet in the 1920’s to below 600 feet in the 1950’s. A person can drive for miles through the desert that has returned and see the graded fields, now abandoned, and the network of dry wells and canals.
HB–it would be nice if we could blame this on the Bully boys and girls, but they aren’t even the tip of an iceberg.
In reading your regurgitation of what I already read from “Bend’s only daily newspaper” I was left thinking two things, why is this new’s article on the blog page when “Bend’s only daily newspaper” who you personally rip on, reported it as news. Then I got second to last paragraph where you, someone who is quick to criticize, gave them a pat on the back. You are the #2 paper in town, we get that. So can we get back to blogging, news, and entertainment?
Jed: I’m sure scientific studies will be done. Meanwhile, the water table is dropping, decreasing precipitation is not enough to account for it, and the most likely explanation seems to be that more water is being withdrawn than is being put back. Either that or the aquifer has sprung a big leak somehow.
Stephen: In general you’re right about agriculture using more water than homes or golf courses, but agriculture is declining in CO and has been for many years.
Advocates of development often point out that the homes and destination resorts they’re supporting will use less water than agriculture would. The fallacy here is that most of the housing developments and destination resorts ARE NOT BEING BUILT on farmland; they’re being built on forest land or out in the puckerbrush on land that isn’t irrigated and never has been.
“So can we get back to blogging, news, and entertainment?”
One of the things bloggers do is comment on the news. This was my comment on a bit of news reported in The Bulletin. I don’t see what you’re bitching about — unless it’s your belief that I shouldn’t comment on any news that appears in “the Other Paper.”
As for the news and entertainment, that’s somebody else’s department.
There is a lot of lava out there and the earth is always moving.
Re the supposed job creation benefits of destination resorts, the following comment from the Blue Oregon blog is worth quoting:
“Given the labor practices I’ve seen at other destination resorts around the state, I don’t think it’s good policy to do anything to promote more of them. Unemployment in rural Oregon runs higher than urban Oregon, yet when you visit these destination resorts you find for the most part they are staffed by foreign workers, such as Filipinos (though rarely Latin Americans), brought over to fill the so-called “jobs Americans don’t want.” Now, more power to anyone immigrating to the U.S. in search of a better life; but I don’t think maid services or other unskilled labor was what the H-1B visa program was created for.
It’s pretty easy to figure out why, in rural areas with massive unemployment, these destination resorts have to fill vacancies for unskilled laborers by bringing over foreign nationals–the wages and benefits at these places are so low that adults living in rural areas can’t afford to work at them. Paying those kinds of wages exploits the foreign workers and increases pockets of poverty for those already living here.
We don’t need this kind of economic model in this country or in this state; especially when the end result is also environmental degradation. When we can come up with an economic plan for resorts that pays living wages, then I’ll consider staying at one.”
The fallacy here is that most of the housing developments and destination resorts ARE NOT BEING BUILT on farmland; they’re being built on forest land or out in the puckerbrush on land that isn’t irrigated and never has been.
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Have you ever been to these homes hbm?? The people that I know that live in these remote resort homes are on ten or more acres, and they have their own deep well, and they run the water 24/7 to ‘irrigate’ the garden-of-eden around their homes. Most are on 20 gal/min wells, and run water continuous in the non-freezing time of year ( I agree that’s not often here ), but nobody seems to realize the waste of well water these siberian Mansions leads to.
WRT to farming, its been here since WWII with the canals, and the table didn’t drop, like the report said, its been the last ten years the water table dropped, and right now they’re just finger pointing. The only thing new is the 24 gated-golf community’s. To me the BIG waste is NOT the ‘golf course’ greens while I agree the salts&herbicides get into the river, but the golf course’s use computers and measure the ground saturation. These REMOTE homes just waste ‘well water’ because its free, and nobody seems to care until the water is gone.
I agree, the resort homes are being built in the puckerbrush, and in order to make these places ‘green’ these places are destroying the water table.
The SOLUTION is to put measurements on these siberians HOMES and tax these people for excessive waste. Controversial yes, but water is administered by the the state water master, and when these homes were built the well is permitted for ‘N’ bathrooms. Period. Not Irrigation, so in effect this waste is a violation of the state water laws.
Hetch Hetchy: Interesting points. I wasn’t aware that the well permits restricted what the water could be used for. If that is the case the law damn well needs to be enforced. We are living in a semi-desert with (as the tourist industry never ceases to remind us) only about 12 inches of precipitation a year. It is senseless and irresponsible for homeowners to cultivate lush green lawns that would be appropriate at an English country house. Maybe if the “free” well water was taken away, homeowners would landscape with native and other low-water-use plants.
“Maybe if the “free” well water was taken away, homeowners would landscape with native and other low-water-use plants.”
Here, here!!