Our online presentation and listening session about the Molalla River Drinking Water Project was well attended with over 30 attendees and great discussion about the long term protection of drinking water source quality. Here’s the video:
People shared their concerns and questions about the draft assessment and we’ll take those concerns into our next meeting with our Technical Advisory Team in early June to incorporate into the source water assessment and protection plan.
Our project focuses on water before it enters the three municipal water intakes serving the Cities of Canby and Molalla, and the community of Colton. The goal of the project is to keep clean water clean and of high quality for drinking, both now and into the future. We’ll use the assessment and resulting plan to ask funders to invest in the Molalla basin to accomplish our goal.
Our first chance to bring in resources will likely be for Agricultural producers as the grant dollars for the assessment are set up to be followed up with implementation funding if we determine a need and enough interest in water quality projects.
If you are considering projects like stream side plantings, irrigation efficiency improvements, or livestock pasture or turnout improvements, Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District can discuss how we might be able to help with technical and potentially financial resources. Contact us and we will connect you with one of our conservation planners about your needs.
If you have not already, we encourage you to view the presentation and provide input. We want to be sure we have as broad a range of views about drinking water source quality as possible so that we have the most accurate representation of issues as possible.
The Molalla River Drinking Water Project
The Molalla River Watershed provides water to residents in Colton, Molalla, and Canby.
Clackamas SWCD provides technical advice to landowners in Clackamas County to solve natural resource-related issues and is sponsoring the Molalla River Drinking Water Project.
The Molalla River Drinking Water Project is an effort to better understand issues affecting drinking water quality for approximately 26,000 people whose drinking water is drawn directly from the Molalla River. Project sponsors are seeking input from members of the public about their perceptions of drinking water source quality and issues of concern.
While the project focuses on water entering municipal intakes in City of Canby, City of Molalla, and the community of Colton, it assesses factors across the entire Molalla River watershed above the City of Canby’s water intake that have potential to impact drinking water source quality.
Using National Water Quality Initiative (NWQI) grant dollars from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Clackamas SWCD is pairing current and historical information with input from the public, land managers, agencies, and community organizations to tell the story of drinking water quality in the Molalla Watershed. The final report will describe where investment of resources will bring the biggest return for drinking water source quality protection and improvement.
