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CLEAR Temp: 59 °F Wind: NE at 6 mph Monday, May 19, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend April 14, 2003 Wastewater may irrigate local crops By JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune The Rogue Valley could become one of the first areas in Oregon to use wastewater on food crops, a process pioneered in California in recent years with positive economic results and significant savings of scarce water. A field trip last weekend to Salinas has helped convince local growers that use of purified wastewater on crops will help them slide through frequent droughts and produce food acceptable to the public palate, said Jim Hill, Medford city water reclamation administrator. A dozen growers, Medford city officials and representatives of area irrigation districts learned that crops from 12,000 Salinas Valley acres that were watered with reclaimed effluent were "doing very well" with both income and public acceptance, Hill said. Facing regular droughts and increasing water demands, growers and irrigation districts here are planning a 500-acre pilot project growing crops with water from the Medford Wastewater Treatment Plant, which would be distributed by the Rogue River Valley Irrigation District, Hill said. The project is now in the discussion phase and would come online in spring 2005, said Jeff Eicher, RRVID manager. It would provide a reliable supply of water for agriculture as well as allow a significant increase in the quality and quantity of water in local streams during late summer droughts. Grower Don Bradshaw, of Seven Oaks Farm north of Central Point, said he was "very impressed" because the reclaimed effluent used in the Salinas Valley was "a lot cleaner" than any water available here — clean enough that growers could use water-hoarding drip irrigation tapes through five seasons without them clogging with particulate, as using stream water would do. "I’ve been following the Salinas project for years and I want to be part of the pilot project here," said Bradshaw, who served on the RRVID board for 15 years and grows direct-to-market sweet corn, onions, tomatoes, grass seed and alfalfa. "As for marketability of wastewater-irrigated crops," he added, "No one has any problem with it at all. It’s tested daily, sometimes hourly, for e. coli or any other contamination. The public accepts it when they understand it’s the cleanest water possible." Hill added, "Growers were hesitant because of concerns about marketability and the stigma attached to wastewater, but they saw there was no issue and came back feeling positive. The big distributors, like Dole, were buying it with no problem." With constant inspections, safety was not an issue, but the "public perception of safety concerns" had to be overcome, said Keith Corp, whose family has grown hay and raised cattle on their Ashland farm since 1947. In Salinas, he added, growers have a "good track record" over the seven-year wastewater experiment. They kept exhaustive records to answer any health charges and said a lot of problems expected from the public did not materialize. "We need long-range planning going out 30 or 40 years," Corp said. "In this area, water is a finite resource, with big problems in short water years and additional demand coming up as the population grows. There aren’t going to be any more reservoirs built because of environmental concerns. "What we do have is 30,000 acre feet of water available from the Medford plant — and that’s a lot." John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected]. Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback A D V E R T I S E R S