Columbia-Pacific Northwest Region

Greenberry Irrigation District, Proposed Service Contract Environmental Assessment

An Environmental Assessment (EA) for a proposed water service contract with the Greenberry Irrigation District, located near Corvallis, Oregon, was prepared in February 2007 and a FONSI was prepared in June of 2007. At that time the proposed action involved entering into a contract with the District to provide 7,500 acre-feet of water to be used on 6,300 acres within the District. The water was to be provided by constructing a pump station on the Willamette River and a system of buried pipelines to convey the water to the District lands. In November 2009 the District proposed to modify the proposed action to allow for the diversion of 14,000 acre feet of water to be applied to about 11,000 acres. In January 2010 the proposal was further modified to change the acreage to which the contracted water could be applied from about 11,000 acres to 12,500 acres.

The supplement to the FONSI evaluated whether additional impacts, beyond those originally considered, would occur from the proposed changes and require us to re-evaluate our previous EA. The supplemental evaluation concluded that no additional impacts, beyond those originally considered in the June 2007 FONSI, would occur. This is because most of the impacts previously identified resulted from the construction activities associated with the installation of the Willamette River pumping station and the conveyance pipelines. Those construction activities would not be affected by the proposed changes to the contract as no additional pumping or conveyance capacity would be needed to deliver the additional water. We also found that all of the additional acreage to be served is currently being farmed and that the increase in volume being requested is within the limits established for irrigation water deliveries from the Willamette Basin Water Marketing Program.

Contact

Candace McKinley
(509) 573-8020
cmckinley@usbr.gov

Bureau of Reclamation
Columbia-Cascades Area Office
1917 Marsh Road
Yakima WA 98901-2058