The U.S. Geological Survey will conduct an in-depth examination of water supply and demand concerns in the Willamette River Basin, the fourth in a series of 10 studies to assess the nation’s water availability.
The USGS Integrated Water Science Basin studies began with the 2009 SECURE Water Act, which directed USGS to establish a national water availability assessment. The studies — which also include in the the Delaware River, Upper Colorado River and the Illinois River basins — help improve understanding of nationwide water availability.
“The integrated nature of river health and real-world water management is well represented by the Willamette River Basin. It supports major cities, fertile agriculture and ecologically important species such as salmon, making it an ideal location to develop better science for future decisions that will affect both the environment and peoples of the region,” Tanya Trujillo, USGS interior assistant secretary for water and science, said in an announcement.
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Observing and analyzing such river systems allows USGS to provide tools for predicating future water conditions, important for decisions surrounding flood management, drinking water supply, recreation and other water issues.
USGS chose the Willamette River Basin because its hydrologic and environmental setting displays the challenges of conflicting water demands between humans and ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest, according to USGS.
USGS noted the challenges faced by salmon species in the Willamette River system. Salmon spawning grounds are often blocked by government-operated flood control and power generation dams operated, among other concerns.
The Willamette River Basin’s wide array of landscapes, diverse stream types, varied aquatic ecosystems and their species will factor into the study’s use of applied science that can help balance human needs for water management, such as flood control and water supply, with the needs of maintaining ecological stability.
“Integration of USGS monitoring, research, and modeling in the Willamette River Basin will support innovation around issues that are common to many river systems of the Pacific Northwest,” Don Cline, USGS Associate Director for Water, said in the announcement.
“For example, we expect to it to bolster our scientific understanding of seasonal variation in precipitation, groundwater-surface water interactions, snowpack influence on summer low flows, watershed response to severe fire and harmful algal bloom prediction.”
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The USGS will use regionally focused data collection, research and modeling, such as the Next Generation Water Observing System, which provides real-time data on water quantity, quality and use. USGS research will provide a near-real-time census of the status, trends and forecasts for water available to support various uses in the basin.
The studies will take years to complete. The Delaware River basin study, for example, began with a pilot phase in 2019 and was planned to move through other phases over the following 10 years into the final “product delivery” phase.
USGS will begin evaluating existing knowledge gaps and consulting stakeholders this spring.
Contact reporter Adam Duvernay at [email protected]. Follow on Twitter @DuvernayOR.
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