Five projects meant to improve irrigation systems, reservoirs and fish screens have won $9 million from Oregon water regulators, who’ve also approved a new grant-funding policy.

The state’s Water Resources Commission has awarded grants ranging from $536,000 to $3.7 million to applicants in Deschutes, Douglas, Josephine and Union counties as part of its ongoing water supply development grant program:

•The highest-ranked project includes dam and fishway upgrades proposed by the Union Soil and Water Conservation District, which will receive a grant for $1.9 million of the total $7.3 million cost.

• The second-ranked project focuses on replacing outdated fish screens along the North Unit Irrigation District’s main canal, which was awarded nearly $2 million of the total $9.8 million cost.

• The third-ranked project will replace two water storage reservoirs with a larger facility used by the Winston-Dillard Water District, which was approved for $3.7 million of the total $7 million cost.

•The fourth-ranked project will convert flood and drip irrigation systems to a center pivot at the Sweet Cron Farm as part of a proposal from the Illinois Valley Soil and Water Conservation District and the Trout Unlimited nonprofit, which was approved for about $536,000 of the total $670,000 cost.

Three other projects in Curry, Harney and Wheeler counties were not approved due to limited available funds and because they didn’t score highly enough for economic, social and ecological benefits.

Joe Moll, a commission member and nonprofit executive, said he’s disappointed with the “triple bottom line” ranking system because it can exclude worthwhile projects.

For example, a much-needed drinking water system may get high social and economic scores but be disqualified due to a lack of environmental impacts, he said.

“Being limited by the minimum score continues to be a problem,” Moll said. “I think it’s a fundamental problem with this grant program, that we’re restricted by those minimum scores.”

The fifth successful proposal was awarded $900,000 from a separate irrigation modernization fund created by lawmakers last year. The project will replace three miles of open canal with piping in the Klamath Irrigation District.

The commission received only that single application for the irrigation modernization money even though there was more than $20.5 million left in the fund.

However, the Oregon Water Resources Department, which is overseen by the commission, is confident that more applications will soon materialize, said Kim Fritz-Ogren, the agency’s section manager for investments and planning.

“I think we will get a lot more than one in the next round,” she said during the commission’s most recent meeting.

The state’s irrigation modernization program requires matching funds from the federal government, so some potential applicants are still waiting for those awards to be finalized, said April Snell, executive director of the Oregon Water Resources Congress, which represents irrigation districts.

Also, proposals for the most recent round of funding were due in July, likely prompting some irrigation districts to wait until they had more time later in the year, Snell said. “It’s really difficult to fill out applications during the irrigation season.”

Due to the potential for the new presidential administration to adopt different funding priorities next year, though, it will be important to “leverage the federal funding that’s out there” as soon as possible, she said.

“There are valid concerns that existing federal funds could be clawed back and/or that it’s going to be very difficult to get additional federal funding,” Snell said.

Apart from approving the five water projects, the commission has voted unanimously to allow past grant recipients to more easily obtain additional funding if they encounter cost overruns.

Applicants contending with higher-than-expected labor and material expenses were already able to seek additional money directly from the commission.

However, past recipients are expected to seek such funding boosts more frequently, both due to inflation and because the number of grants overseen by OWRD has grown from $21 million to more than $100 million over the past decade, said Fritz-Ogren.

“We just are managing more grants and more dollars, so we’d expect to see more increases,” she siad.

Such requests will no longer be limited to the commission’s quarterly meetings because it has now agreed to delegate that authority to the OWRD under certain circumstances.

The agency had sought the authority to approve additional funding up to 20% of an original grant award, for a maximum of $500,000, but the commission scaled that back to 10% and $250,000.

The lower percentage and total cash amount will allow the agency to accommodate more requests, said Kathy Kihara, a commission member and retired federal civil engineer.

“With the 10%, you can have twice as many people come into the door for help compared to the 20%,” she said.

It’s also possible the higher funding limit would have elicited larger requests from grant recipients, Moll said. “Quite frankly, what will happen is, behaviorally, we will magically see 19% requests. That is the way these things work.”