The Associated Press
03/28/98 6:50 PM Eastern
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Two years after the Flood of 1996 sent a torrent of mud and debris into rivers and streams, knocking out water systems from Portland to Eugene, cities are exerting new influence over how federal forest lands are managed.
Their primary concern is not the plight of salmon or spotted owls, but drinking water.
Increasingly, utilities and water providers are scrutinizing entire watersheds -- which comprise a river, all its tributaries and the land that drains into them.
On national forests, that can translate into virtually all the real estate. Nearly every drainage on the 1.1-million-acre Mount Hood National Forest produces water for drinking.
More than 50 percent of Oregonians get their water from sources that flow from federal forests.
That could mean pressure to impose new restrictions on farmers, private timber companies and developers who also own land in watersheds that produce drinking water.
In February, 21 conservation groups released a report criticizing timber sales approved in 1997 under President Clinton's Northwest Forest Plan. The report highlighted municipal watersheds and blamed logging for damaging them.
"The basic program has not been one of watershed restoration -- it's been one of timber extraction," said Regna Merritt, water-quality advocate for the Oregon Natural Resources Council. "The whole direction of the agencies is going to have to shift drastically if they're going to be in step with the public wants."
To many, the connection between water problems in 1996 and logging was all too apparent:
Recently several cities and water districts have gotten greater say in how their watersheds are managed by negotiating agreements with the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management that make protecting water a top priority.
Watershed management agreements have been reached with the cities of Lake Oswego, Estacada, Molalla and Sandy, and a water board comprising Oregon City and West Linn. Portland, Salem, Eugene and Ashland already had agreements.
The water providers and federal agencies agreed to provisions that include: establishing joint water-quality monitoring programs, discussing timber sales and other projects in watersheds early in the planning process, patrolling during storms and producing annual reports on watershed health.
The agreements don't give cities veto power on timber sales and, with the exception of Sandy, do not reduce or limit logging.
Although federal land managers praise the new partnerships, they also say environmentalists are exploiting people's fears about drinking water to push an agenda to ban logging.
Federal managers argue that timber sales are as central to their missions as safe water, and they tout programs that include shutting down roads and planting more trees in steep areas. After the 1996 floods, the Forest Service got $180 million for watershed restoration in Oregon and Washington.
But before the government can pinpoint how land-use practices affect drinking water supplies, it must know where those supplies are.
This month, Oregon should begin getting federal grants to develop more accurate data on its 3,500 water systems.
Additionally, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, is expected to issue a report in May to analyze logging impacts on water quality on federal forests providing water to Seattle, Portland, Salem, Eugene, Cottage Grove and Sandy.
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