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LANE COUNTY Water shortage hits riverfront city Comment By Christian Hill The Register-Guard MailTribune.com By Christian Hill The Register-Guard Posted Apr. 16, 2015 at 4:29 PM Updated Apr 16, 2015 at 4:39 PM By Christian Hill The Register-Guard Posted Apr. 16, 2015 at 4:29 PM Updated Apr 16, 2015 at 4:39 PM » Social News WESTFIR — The state’s water woes have extended into this small Lane County riverfront city as it girds for a possible water shortage. City officials have declared a water emergency that prohibits all outdoor uses of water and that they expect to last through the summer. The declaration came three days after the local watermaster — the state official tasked with regulating water use in times of shortage — restricted Westfir’s water. The city expects the situation to worsen with even lower river levels anticipated for the summer. Plenty of water remains in the river the city draws from. But state water law says the right to water for fish trumps the city’s right because the river level has dropped too low — at least for the short term — to satisfy the needs of both. The declaration, approved by the City Council on Monday, prohibits all outdoor water use, including watering lawns, washing cars and filling pools and hot tubs in the community of under 300 residents. The news comes as officials warn that a record-low snowpack in the Cascade Range coupled with lower-than-average spring rainfall in parts of Western Oregon bode ill for some Willamette Valley communities this summer. Westfir, northwest of Oakridge along Highway 58, sits on the banks of the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River. Its water system, which draws water from the river, serves more than 110 homes and small businesses. Mayor Matt Meske said the city last summer asked residents to voluntarily cut back their outdoor water usage and planned to do so again this year. But he said that idea turned into an immediate mandate when the local watermaster on Friday restricted the city’s water use to domestic purposes, such as drinking and washing, to curb water withdrawal from the river and preserve the river’s flow to protect fish and water quality. All water in Oregon is publicly owned, and the state grants landowners, agencies and others permission to divert or pump a certain volume of water at a specific location so long as it’s put to a beneficial use. Under state water law, the holders of older water rights supersede more recent ones. Westfir secured its water right to the river in 1986, three years after the water right for the river’s in-stream flow to protect fish was established, said Mike McCord, regional manager for the Oregon Water Resources Department. The city’s water right is 1 cubic foot per second, or 646,272 gallons a day, although Jackson Stone, the city’s water and sewer operator, said the city uses a small portion of that amount even during the summer when water usage hits its peak. The water right to preserve the river’s in-stream flow at this time is 2,500 cubic feet per second. The local watermaster notified the city it needed to restrict its water usage last week because there wasn’t enough flow in the river at the time to satisfy the in-stream flow and other senior water rights. The city may get relief in June, however, when the water right for the in-stream flow for fish is reduced to reflect historically lower stream flows during the dry weather. That means more water would be available for other water rights-holders such as the city, McCord said. Westfir’s problem “is a short-term situation,” he said. If the restriction drags on into the summer, he explained, Westfir still would have the legal right to draw water for strictly domestic uses — excluding all outdoor uses — because of an exemption under the state water law. By Christian Hill The Register-Guard MailTribune.com By Christian Hill The Register-Guard Posted Apr. 16, 2015 at 4:29 PM Updated Apr 16, 2015 at 4:39 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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