KWSO News for Thu., May 13, 2021

Yesterday the Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 Weekly Report was released.  They reported 4,896 new daily cases of COVID-19 last week which represents a 12% decline from the previous week and marks the second consecutive week of lower weekly cases.  New COVID-19 related hospitalizations also declined from 272 to 245.  There were 31 reported COVID-19 related deaths, nearly doubling the previous week’s total.  People 70 years of age and older have accounted for 39% of COVID-19 related hospitalizations and 75% of COVID-19 related deaths.

Governor Kate Brown went into more details about her plan to reopen Oregon yesterday (Wednesday) on “All Things Considered.”  She hopes to reopen the state by June. But that will only happen  if 70 percent of eligible Oregonians get their first vaccine.  This news come just a few weeks after a fourth surge of COVID-19 cases in the state.  Governor brown said more severe and contagious variants of the virus were likely to blame.  She said during the surge daily cases nearly quadrupled in a short time frame.   Right now, around 60 percent of Oregonians have had their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.   Brown says roughly 34 thousand vaccines are given out each day in the state.

Prescribed burns continue through parts of Oregon, including the McKenzie River Corridor where last fall’s devastating Holiday Farm Fire occurred. [KLCC’s Brian Bull reports.]

For the first time since the federal Klamath water management project in Southern Oregon was opened in 19-oh-7, the main canal supplying water to irrigators will remain closed this season. The federal Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the Klamath Project, announced today (Wednesday) that deteriorating water conditions in the Klamath Basin led to the decision. The Bureau also said water that was expected to be used to flush parasites out of the Klamath River to protect threatened salmon won’t be sent downriver, either. Deepening drought conditions mean a tentative plan for water distribution announced last month is scrapped and the remaining water in Upper Klamath Lake will be kept there to try to preserve two endangered fish species.

A major West Coast liquified natural gas pipeline and export terminal is officially on pause after state reversals of two of its dredging permits last week. The Herald and News reports the Jordan Cove Energy project’s manager and associate general counsel, Donald Sullivan, filed a letter with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Tuesday. In it he cited a list of state permit denials that prevent the project from moving ahead despite a federal approval from the agency. Sullivan wrote that applicants have decided to pause the development of the project while they assess the effect of these decisions.

The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde received nearly a million-dollar federal grant today/Wednesday to boost the environmental restoration of Oregon City’s Willamette Falls.  The Environmental Protection Agency awarded the tribe $800-thousand dollars to begin environmental cleanup at the former Blue Heron paper mill site in Oregon City.  The money will be used to identify and test for hazardous substances and for  decommissioning underground storage tanks.  The tribe purchased the falls in 20-19 and has since been working with the Department of Environmental Quality to safely restore the area and remove contamination.

Last Month the Grand Ronde withdrew from the Willamette Falls Trust, the nonprofit organization made up of more than a dozen agencies including the Siletz, Umatilla, Warm Springs & Yakama Tribes.  Willamette Falls Trust has taken on engaging the public and raising funds to support the Willamette Falls Legacy Project, a major collaboration effort between the tribes and various governmental agencies in the redevelopment of the former industrial land around the falls in a way that pays homage to the sacred site with cultural significance to Pacific Northwest tribes. Additional Trust members include government representatives from Oregon City, Clackamas County, Metro and the state of Oregon.  The Tribal Council for the Grand Ronde on Thursday, April 22, issued a letter to the Trust notifying its board and Executive Director Andrew Mason that the Grand Ronde have formally withdrawn from the inter-tribal and inter-governmental agency.   You can check out KOIN TVs article on this story.

Last summer in an published opinion letter co-authored by Tribal Council chairs from the Siletz, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Yakama Tribes – asserted that the Willamette Falls was an Indian gathering place, similar to Celilo Falls on the Columbia River. Tribes met there to harvest, trade, visit and even intermarry.  “The Indians who were signatories to the ratified 1855 Treaty of Kalapuya were removed to the Siletz Reservation and the Grand Ronde reservation. Indians at the Falls who came from the east were removed to several reservations, but preserved in three other ratified 1855 treaties their rights to continue to fish at all usual and accustomed fishing places, however distant from those reservations. Although our ancestors came from many places, we are now identified by the reservations they were moved to: Siletz, Warm Springs, Umatilla, Yakama and Grand Ronde.  The letter went on to say “these Treaty Tribes work together on issues of mutual interest on the Willamette River and at Willamette Falls specifically. Recent examples include the cleanup of the Portland harbor Superfund site, Portland General Electric FERC licensing processes and the Willamette Falls Locks Commission. Even more recently, Congress recognized the interests of these tribes, not just Grand Ronde, in protecting salmon and restoring ecological balance to the Willamette River in and around Willamette Falls.”  You can read the Pamplin Media article HERE.