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
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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
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Spencer Higginson
Service Hydrologist
4003 Cirrus Drive
Medford, Oregon 97504
(541) 776-4303 x228 Office
