Ordnance Project News Today

ECHO — Umatilla County has hired a consultant on the $17 million project to take more water from the Columbia River to help local farmers while providing a ready water

UMATILLA — More than six decades after regulators first documented groundwater declines in Umatilla and Morrow counties, the East Project irrigation system was dedicated before a crowd of about two dozen along the Columbia River on Tuesday, May 11. The more than $50 million project aims to provide farmers with river water in lieu of pumping from the ground in an effort to recharge depleted aquifers and allow farmers to grow higher value crops. “It wouldn’t be possible unless ther...

UMATILLA COUNTY — Historically, when the East Oregonian has compiled top-10 stories of the year lists, it has polled the staff on the top stories and compiled the list based on those results. When we went down that path, it was apparent that the voting was for stories two through 10, because there is no question what the year’s top story would be — the COVID-19 pandemic. That left stories like the February flooding that ravaged Umatilla County, summer protests in Hermiston and Pe...