Sounds good. I have Andy Peters, Operations Supervisor coordinating site visits to the intake. He will let me know if anything else is needed on my end.
Regards,
Gerald Fisher, P.E. | Public Works Director
City of Molalla
117 N Molalla Ave. | PO Box 248 |Molalla, OR 97038
Office: 503.829.6855 | Direct: 503.759.0218
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this email message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient and have received this communication in error, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. Thank you.
From: Katherine Rowden - NOAA Federal <katherine.rowden@noaa.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 10:13 AM
To: Gerald Fisher <gfisher@cityofmolalla.com>
Cc: david.callery@usda.gov; Spencer Higginson - NOAA Federal <spencer.higginson@noaa.gov>; Downing, Daryl NWS <Daryl.S.Downing@usace.army.mil>; thardy83642@gmail.com; Wright, Kyle -FS <kyle.wright2@usda.gov>
Subject: Re: Fire Assessment
Thanks Gerald
I know Spencer has tied in with you or one of your staff to follow up on this. We will also be coordinating with state and/or federal municipal water subject matter experts to include those potential impacts in the assessment process as best we can.
--
Katherine Rowden
Hydrology Program Manager
Western Region Headquarters
National Weather Service / NOAA
Cell: 509.714.4524
On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 10:05 AM Gerald Fisher <gfisher@cityofmolalla.com> wrote:
Intake location 45-07-41.44N 122-32-22.80W
Yes we have voiced our concerns but am not sure where it has gone from there. We have not received an update or plan from the state agencies in charge. Would be good to know what their plan is when they have one developed so we can communicate that with our elected officials.
Regards,
Gerald Fisher, P.E. | Public Works Director
City of Molalla
117 N Molalla Ave. | PO Box 248 |Molalla, OR 97038
Office: 503.829.6855 | Direct: 503.759.0218
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this email message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient and have received this communication in error, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. Thank you.
From: Katherine Rowden - NOAA Federal <katherine.rowden@noaa.gov>
Sent: Monday, October 26, 2020 2:20 PM
To: Gerald Fisher <gfisher@cityofmolalla.com>
Cc: david.callery@usda.gov; Spencer Higginson - NOAA Federal <spencer.higginson@noaa.gov>; Downing, Daryl NWS <Daryl.S.Downing@usace.army.mil>; thardy83642@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Fire Assessment
Hello Gerald
Thank you for reaching out. I hear your concerns about your community's water supply and we definitely want to take that into consideration in these assessment efforts. Do you have location(s) of your intakes or treatment facilities?
Also, have you communicated these concerns with your County Emergency Management?
--
Katherine Rowden
Hydrology Program Manager
Western Region Headquarters
National Weather Service / NOAA
Cell: 509.714.4524
On Mon, Oct 26, 2020 at 2:02 PM Gerald Fisher <gfisher@cityofmolalla.com> wrote:
Hi Katherine and David,
My tone may be a bit harsh since I’ve been complaining about mismanagement of forest lands for some time.
The Molalla River is our only source of drinking water. Past efforts to construct a well as a backup failed due to poor aquifer conditions in our area. I may be wrong but I believe that a majority of the land within our watershed is BLM and the balance is private hobby farm or small timber tracts. Because these properties are not required to be managed to abate fire or requirements are not enforced, it was no surprise to those of us who’ve lived our lives in Oregon that the fires decimated our watershed. The City of Molalla has no authority outside of our corporate city limits so authority lies with the state and federal agencies overseeing these lands. Oversight has not happened and local agencies and soil and water districts have been complaining about this for some time. Now we are at “I told you so.” The amount of money spent on fires would have been better used managing our forests properly.
The impacts that can affect our ability to provide safe drinking water to a population of about 10,000 will be hindered by sediment runoff clogging our intakes as well as debris floating downstream this winter. We are already receiving reports from emergency management of landslides within the Riverside Fire Complex which impacted over 54% of our watershed. Any money that can be spent should be spent on aggressively protecting unstable slopes in the watershed on private land to limit erosion runoff until permanent vegetation can be established. BLM should be required to pay full freight for their property mitigation. If they cant manage that then its time for a leadership change at BLM.
Regards,
Gerald Fisher, P.E. | Public Works Director
City of Molalla
117 N Molalla Ave. | PO Box 248 |Molalla, OR 97038
Office: 503.829.6855 | Direct: 503.759.0218
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this email message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient and have received this communication in error, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. Thank you.
From: Spencer Higginson - NOAA Federal <spencer.higginson@noaa.gov>
Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2020 1:16 PM
To: Gerald Fisher <gfisher@cityofmolalla.com>
Subject: Fire Assessment
Hi Gerald. My name is Spencer Higginson. I work for the National Weather Service. I am on a team that will spin up within the next several days to assess the state/municipal/private lands impacted by several fires in Oregon. I recently finished up similar work on federal lands. During that time I became acquainted with John Runyon who is working with you on the Molalla City water intake. This is the type of thing this team will try to look at. Our goal is to find where there are needs due to post-fire impacts and find programs or grants that will help provide funding to fill the need. Before I accidentally commit to more than I'm able to commit, I'll just say that I am not sure how this will play out and can't promise anything. I just wanted to make you aware of the effort. To help make sure that the city of Molalla is kept in mind, it would be helpful for you to send an email stating your concerns in regard to the city's water treatment system (both capacity/capability and the physical threat to the intake itself from increased runoff and debris). Please send the email to katherine.rowden@noaa.gov and david.callery@usda.gov . Please let me know if you have any questions.
Spencer
--
Spencer Higginson
Service Hydrologist
4003 Cirrus Drive
Medford, Oregon 97504
(541) 776-4303 x228 Office
