A balancing act
Ranchers, DEQ officials hammer out TMDL issues
By LARRY MEYER
ONTARIO
Monday, August 25, 2008 11:01 AM PDT
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| Water in the Malheur River moves slowly below Malheur Butte during the late summer, as water continues to be diverted upstream for irrigation. The face of irrigation is changing as water quality concerns increase. |
Temperature was the topic for a second time during Thursday’s meeting on the Malheur River Basin Total Maximum Daily Load plan, with DEQ officials and local ranchers addressing water quality issues in the river and what contributes to the pollutant problems.
Writers of the TMDL plan said they will not deal directly with trying to meet a number standard for water temperature at this time.
Their focus, instead, will be on conditions in and along the river that show how healthy the streams are.
To do that, the planners are working to determine what the potential for vegetation at various sites is compared with the current conditions to determine what improvements, if any, need to be made.
“We are most concerned about the way the vegetation is along the streams,” Ryan Michie, a Department of Environmental Quality staff member working on the temperature TMDL plan, said. “We’re focusing on conditions.”
Rancher Jim Bentz recounted, in the past, ice jams have ripped out vegetation along the river, leaving the banks torn up or bare.
He is concerned the ranching community could be held responsible for similar damage in the future, Bentz said.
“We’re incorporating natural disturbances (in the plan),” John Dadoly, DEQ basin coordinator and writer of the TMDL, said.
Clint Shock, a member of Malheur Watershed Council, echoed Bentz’s concern.
Shock said similar damage occurred in 1964 Jordan Creek and ranchers were blamed.
“They were harshly judged by the Idaho DEQ,” Shock said.
“I want to help,” Michie said, adding wording could be added to say the ranchers will not be held responsible for natural disturbances. “We’re putting that in.”
Bentz and others at the meeting said having that language as well as use of vegetation as a measure of stream health and meeting water quality standards is important documentation of what was intended in the plan when neither Michie and Dadoly are not around and others are administering the plan.
Asked what types of activities would help improve vegetation and stream-side health, Dadoly said juniper removal would improve vegetation communities and allow more water to flow.
Dadoly is planning to have a rough draft of the Malheur TMDL ready for review toward the end of the year.
