Water, farms and power in northeastern Oregon, from the pages of Oregon Water Online and the coalition’s website
Responsible development, conservation and utilization of
The Oregon Water Coalition was a Hermiston group of irrigators, districts and local businesses, incorporated in 1992. Its website ran a news blog, fact sheets, legislative trackers and a monthly newsletter. This is that record, restored page by page, with plain-language guides added in 2026.
A center-pivot tower in an irrigated field, from the coalition’s 2017–2023 homepage.
Oregon Water OnlineJanuary 16, 2012Irrigation & farms
As much as 140,000 acres of farmland in the Mid-Columbia may go dry in less than a decade unless state and federal governments take action, irrigation…
Center-pivot fields near Umatilla from the air, May 2008. Photo: Sam Beebe, CC BY 2.0.
Also in the archive
Coalition page2026 notes
HB 3111 and its legislative follow-up, SB 129, established a process for irrigation districts in Oregon to…
Coalition page2026 notes
The Umatilla County Critical Ground Water Task Force was organized in 2004 to "develop and recommend…
July 22, 20092026 notes
Representative Chuck Norris served five terms in the Oregon house, between 1987 and 1997, representing…
March 7, 20142026 notes
Fear of a blowout has been reduced, but Grant County Public Utility District officials are still puzzling…
Coalition page2026 notes
The Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer (ESPA) is located in southeastern Idaho. It is Idaho’s largest aquifer system, and one…
April 11, 20142026 notes
“March was a great month for the Pacific Northwest” as regards the collection of mountain snowpack that will feed the…
April 11, 20142026 notes
Central Washington’s Grant County Public Utility District announced that the foundation below Wanapum Dam was not a…
Umatilla Basin · lower Columbia
Swipe the map sideways. Positions are plotted from real coordinates; pivot circles and canal lines are schematic.
Umatilla County
Where the coalition was based. The retail and services centre for western Umatilla and Morrow counties, near the I-82/I-84 junction and seven miles south of McNary Dam.
Umatilla County
The Umatilla River meets the Columbia here, just below McNary Dam. Three Mile Falls Dam, three miles upriver, turns water into the West Extension canal.
Columbia River
Corps of Engineers dam on the Columbia, about 1,127 megawatts. Its pool, Lake Wallula, feeds the pumps of the Umatilla Basin Project water exchange.
Morrow County
Port of Morrow, food processing, data centres and wide circles of irrigated land pumped from the Columbia.
Morrow County
River town between Umatilla and Boardman, inside the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area, set up because of nitrate in the groundwater.
Umatilla County
Farm town of the Stanfield Irrigation District, which receives Columbia exchange water through the rebuilt Furnish canal.
Umatilla County
Upriver on the Umatilla. The Feed Canal that fills Cold Springs Reservoir leaves the river about a mile and a half southeast of town.
Umatilla Project
Off-stream storage for the Hermiston Irrigation District, filled by the 25-mile Feed Canal. First irrigation water went out in March 1908. Today it is also a national wildlife refuge.
Umatilla County seat
County seat on the Umatilla where the river leaves the foothills. After the water exchange, salmon and steelhead swim through downtown again.
Umatilla Project
Storage on McKay Creek about six miles south of Pendleton, built 1923–27 for the Stanfield and Westland irrigation districts.
Headwaters
Winter snow here sets the irrigation season below. NRCS water-supply forecasts for the Umatilla, Walla Walla and Willow basin start with this snowpack.
Oregon–Washington line
Source of new irrigation permits, exchange water and federal hydropower. Oregon’s rules for taking water from the Columbia run through HB 3111 and the bills that followed.
Center pivots, groundwater, canals and crop news from the Umatilla and Morrow county farm belt.
Salmon and steelhead runs, hatcheries, terns and sea lions, fish passage and river flows in the Columbia and Snake basins, from the Oregon Water Online blog.
Written in 2026 for this archive
“Until there are bridges of understanding to link rural and urban Oregon, agriculture will continue to face one crisis after another.”
From the “About OWC” panel of the coalition’s 2011–2016 homepage.
A farm road between irrigated fields, from the same homepage set.
Publications
Members received an OWC Newsletter every month. 67 issues survived in public web-archive captures; each filled square below opens one as a PDF.
| Year | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
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| 2015 |
History of the address
The coalition is incorporated by irrigators, districts and businesses around Hermiston.
Oregon Water Online starts on WordPress.com, reposting Columbia Basin Bulletin items under dated addresses.
The blog moves to /blog/, beside a static coalition site with membership pages and the monthly newsletter.
A Squarespace site brings fact sheets, legislation trackers, town hall listings and president’s letters.
This archive restores the pages on their original addresses. How it was rebuilt.
To the OWC Board of Directors and OWC membership: I graduated from law school on Saturday, May 15. While my first day of law…
Letter from OWC President Ray Kopacz December 15, 2020 Oregon Water Coalition Members, The Oregon Water Coalition (OWC) was…
Marika Sitz served as the coordinator of OWC from 2017-2018. She is a rising third-year law student at the University of Oregon…
Oregon’s 100 Year Water Vision Assessment is now available! This document summarizes input from stakeholders on the Governor’s…
April 4, 2014Energy & hydropower
After a lengthy rate proceeding, BPA officials have decided to allocate oversupply costs to generators within its balancing…
March 14, 2014Snowpack, climate & forecasts
At least one particular climatic condition that seems to influence weather conditions in the Northwest, as well as around the…
March 7, 2014Irrigation & farms
Some Columbia Basin farmers soon will be able to use Columbia River water to irrigate crops on 80,000 acres, instead of rapidly…
February 10, 2012Energy & hydropower
The Bonneville Power Administration has announced a proposal for compensating wind energy producers that are served by the…
February 10, 2012Irrigation & farms
Northwest states and Canadian provinces have launched a letter-writing and lobbying campaign to assure that a $1 million…
December 9, 2011Energy & hydropower
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has sided with wind generating companies in an order giving the Bonneville Power…
December 2, 2011Salmon & rivers
Combined losses of juvenile salmon and steelhead to predation by Caspian terns and double-crested cormorants in the Columbia…
October 15, 2010Snowpack, climate & forecasts
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has revised the 2005 critical habitat designation for bull trout, a threatened species found…
