Powering the Future: Notes from the Eastern Oregon Economic Summit
Water availability, workforce retention, energy reliability, affordability, and rural innovation are all topics that are top of mind for residents, businesses, and local leaders in Eastern Oregon. Wy'East staff had the opportunity to join Oregonians from across the state in Ontario, OR, a small town of just under 12,000 residents situated on the Oregon-Idaho border, for the Eastern Oregon Economic Summit.
As in years past, the Eastern Oregon Women's Coalition put together a fantastic program, bringing speakers and representation from all corners of Oregon from urban centers in Portland and Salem to rural Eastern Oregon communities like La Grande and Baker City. This year's summit theme, “When Eastern Oregon Thrives, Oregon Rises,” focused on energy, water, childcare, and economic development challenges and opportunities. Ontario's location on the Oregon-Idaho border provided a unique community and economic development context not seen in other regions of Oregon, and emphasized the importance of developing local workforce pipelines to retain high-quality talent in Malheur County.
While much of the summit focused on developing the existing workforce and supporting legacy community champions, the panel “Powering the Future: Energy Development in Eastern Oregon” offered a more future-focused perspective, looking at how Eastern Oregon as a whole is innovating and drawing in new business in emerging sectors and technologies from cloud seeding with Rainmaker, to geologic hydrogen exploration with Koloma, and lithium mining with HiTech Minerals.
Day one of the summit consisted of local field tours. Wy'East staff attended the “Working Waters” tour, which showcased the movement of water from source to pivot across the Owyhee Irrigation District. The Owyhee Irrigation District conveys irrigation water to patrons across more than 167,000 irrigated acres in Malheur County.
As drought and water availability continue to be a challenge across much of Oregon, local onion producers highlighted the importance of irrigation efficiency upgrades to increase application efficiency and reduce water loss across their fields. Irrigators can take advantage of several regional programs offering incentives to install Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs), which regulate pressure across an irrigation system, giving the producer more control over water output; upgrade existing irrigation pumps to more efficient models; and convert or replace irrigation systems conversions might include wheel line to pivot upgrades or sprinkler hardware conversions.
Wy'East staff also had the opportunity to tour the Owyhee Dam. This 417-foot-tall dam was, at the time of its completion in 1932, the world's tallest dam and largest concrete structure globally a distinction only surpassed a few years later by the Hoover Dam. The Owyhee Dam served as a test bed for its younger relative, the Hoover Dam, with several approaches being tested on the Owyhee replicated along the Colorado River three years later. Regionally, the Owyhee Dam provides approximately 1.8 irrigation years' worth of reservoir storage for irrigators. This storage capacity, alongside irrigation efficiency improvements, has allowed many producers in the region to continue farming amid tougher drought conditions.
If you are a producer anywhere in Oregon interested in exploring irrigation efficiency solutions for your farm or ranch, please reach out to our team, and we would be happy to help you explore not only different water and energy saving solutions, but also funding options to help provide cost savings for your operation.