Public Notices

Final supplemental EA and FONSI: Long-term Release of Additional 1,000 Acre-feet to the Long-term Withdrawal of Irrigation Water Willow Creek Lake, Morrow County, Oregon

Published March 19, 2019
Willow Creek Dam

Willow Creek Dam

Public Notice

SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT & FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT

Long-term Release of Additional 1,000 Acre-feet (Total 3,500 Acre-feet) Supplemental Environmental Assessment to the Long-term Withdrawal of Irrigation Water Willow Creek Lake, Morrow County, Oregon, March 2008, Final Environmental Assessment

Interested parties are hereby notified that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District (Corps), in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), has signed the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Supplemental Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the long-term release of an additional 1,000 acre-feet of stored water for irrigation from the Willow Creek Dam and Lake Project (Project). 

The draft SEA was released for a 30-day public comment period on May 4, 2018. The FONSI was singed on March 8, 2019. The Corps received a total of seven comments from individuals, stakeholder groups, and the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation. Comments are addressed in Section 5 of the SEA. 

In the SEA, the Corps assessed the incremental effects of the annual release of an additional 1,000 AF of stored water from the Project as compared to the baseline irrigation release of 2,500 AF.  The Project is authorized to store and release up to 3,500 AF for irrigation purposes. The need for the additional release is to provide the irrigation district, Willow Creek District Improvement Company, with a more reliable, annual, long-term source of additional irrigation water; water released from storage is considered more reliable than groundwater sources.  

The SEA and FONSI are available on the Corps’ Digital Library at https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16021coll7/id/10170 and https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16021coll7/id/10171, respectively.