HERMISTON, Ore. — Two down, one to go.

Farmers in northeast Oregon have completed the second of three new water pipelines tapping into the Columbia River, part of an ambitious plan to boost the region’s agricultural economy while simultaneously relieving pressure on badly stressed groundwater aquifers.

On Jan. 28, the Oregon Water Resources Department signed off on the $47 million East Project, the largest and most expensive of the pipeline package.

With the West Project, which was finished last year, the pipeline will be operational for the full 2021 irrigation season.

Jake Madison, president of Madison Ranches in Echo, Ore., and chairman of the Northeast Oregon Water Association, said the projects are the result of local, state and federal collaboration, and have led to “a true Mid-Columbia renaissance for future water sustainability.”

“We have lived and breathed these projects for the past eight years of our lives,” Madison said in a statement. “While we are not there yet, we have two of three key cornerstone projects in place that give us the chance to succeed and implement our vision.”

Water woes in the basin date back to at least 1958, when Oregon water regulators first began observing groundwater declines. Between 1976 and 1991, OWRD designated four critical groundwater areas straddling Umatilla and Morrow counties.

Wells were either restricted or cut off entirely, leaving thousands of acres of potentially high-value farmland dry.

In 2012, then-Gov. John Kitzhaber convened the Columbia River-Umatilla Solutions Task Force, which initially proposed using Columbia River water to irrigate farms and allow groundwater aquifers the chance to recharge.

However, the Columbia River is subject to strict environmental protections in Oregon. In order to take water from the river, it has to be replaced from other sources to avoid harming endangered fish — a standard known as “bucket-for-bucket” mitigation.

The Northeast Oregon Water Association, or NOWA, was established in 2013 to come up with a plan. Its members conceived three large pipelines to deliver Columbia River water, which would be temporarily offset by transferring existing municipal water rights in-stream for up to 30 years.

Phase I of the project calls for 180 cubic feet per second of water from the river. One cubic foot of water is a little less than 7.5 gallons.

J.R. Cook, founder and director of NOWA, said the goal is to eventually transition basin farms off groundwater entirely, instead using the aquifers as a “savings account” for drought.

“Now we have the infrastructure in the ground to be able to prove that we can do what we said we can do for the last 15 years,” Cook said.

The West Project was the first to cross the finish line in 2020. It begins at a pump station on the Columbia River next to the Port of Morrow near Boardman. Water then flows through 8 miles of 72-inch fiberglass pipe into an open irrigation canal owned by the Columbia Improvement District.

The East Project was an even bigger challenge, Cook said. To meet state grant requirements, the project must be owned by a public entity. Farmers formed the East Improvement District, starting from scratch.

Meanwhile, the pipeline itself posed a multitude of logistical and regulatory hurdles. The pump station was previously owned by JSH Farms, which donated its federal Columbia River easement allowing crews to upgrade the system.

The station, about 12 miles northeast of Hermiston, was retrofitted with nine, 2,000-horsepower pumps capable of drawing 90,000 gallons of water per minute.

From there, the pipeline crosses underneath a state highway, a Union Pacific rail line and up a sheer basalt cliff to reach farmland stretching roughly 9 miles to the south.

Carl St. Hilaire, chairman of the East Improvement District and president of JSH Farms, said it was “truly a monumental effort in terms of engineering, funding, state and federal coordination and local administration.”

“To see so many private landowners work together to ensure that this project did not fail when it could have so many times is truly a testament to the commitment of this basin to help each other and help prepare our future generations for success,” St. Hilaire said.

With the East Project finished, just one pipeline remains to be built.

The Ordnance Project, formerly named the Central Project, was recently purchased by Umatilla County, which plans to supply water to farms and potential industrial developments at the former Umatilla Chemical Depot.

Cook said total investment in the projects over the last six years has exceeded $116 million, including $11 million in state funding and $105 million from local landowners and food processors that will benefit from increased agricultural production.

“The region has put significant skin in the game to fix the state of Oregon’s over-appropriation issues and build a pathway to long-term environmental improvement and economic sustainability,” Cook said.

Cook said support from lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and state Sen. Betsy Johnson, was critical to the projects’ success.

In a statement, Johnson, D-Scappoose, said basin farmers have done their part. Now it is time for Oregon to step up and get them long-term Columbia River mitigation water, she said.

“This project is a remarkable first step,” Johnson said. “Let’s finish what we’ve started and be the reliable partner NOWA and these Eastern Oregon communities deserve.”