Benton County Water Project – Progress

Progress to Date

2009

• Abandoned Wells Grant awarded for Phase 2 of the Water Project.

• Phase 2 of the Benton County Water Project has begun! See the Meetings and Resources pages for more information and current project work.
  • You can also Sign Up for the Water Project Mailing List to learn more about local and regional project work.

2008

• Final Draft (11/15/08) of the Benton County Phase 1
  Water Analysis and Demand Forecast Project is up for review
  * Meetings with project stakeholders and communities are scheduled
  to review work to date*
  
• GSI Water Solutions, Inc. has been contracted to work with Benton County to develop Phase I: "Benton County Water Analysis and Demand Forecast" – GSI will be focusing on water supply and quality issues within the rural areas of Benton County.

• Read the article "Water Project Worth Tapping Into" (PDF) - see other NEWS & VIEWS on regional water.

• Read the article "Albany Considers Regional Water Plan" (PDF) - see other NEWS & VIEWS on regional water.

• Check out the Water Project Community Meetings that occurred during the fall.

• Up for review is the Water Project Primer (PDF), an overview of Benton County's water supply situation and the Benton County Water Project.

• Dr. Todd Jarvis of the OSU Institute for Water and Watersheds donated his time, hydrogeology expertise, and skilled artwork to create a Benton County Conceptual Block Diagram (PDF) which provides a whole new perspective on water supply in the county. 

• Benton County is pleased to announce that our proposal to the Oregon Water Resources Department Oregon Water Supply and Conservation Initiative – Community Request for Funding was successful! (See our Project Update flyer [PDF]).  Benton County will work with countywide and cross-county collaborators to complete a Phase I:  "Benton County Water Analysis and Demand Forecast" (see the official press release). 

• County develops and submits a Phase I "Benton County Water Analysis and Demand Forecast" proposal to the Oregon Water Resources Department to form a countywide community water supply assessment (download the Project Synopsis [PDF]).

• Collaboration with upstream and downstream stakeholders is ongoing throughout the project and will be instrumental in planning for the long term use of cross-county water supplies across jurisdictions over time.

• Lane County, City of Albany, City of Adair Village, Benton SWCD and others sign Memoranda of Cooperation with Benton County to help in the Water Project.

2007

• The Water Supply Project is initiated by Benton County Commissioners with intern funding provided by the Institute for Water and Watersheds at Oregon State University.

• Benton County develops and submits a collaborative outreach proposal to the USGS Small Grants Program to develop community learning events on issues and values around water supply within the county.

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