KWSO News 7/12/19

The Warm Springs Agency Water System remains unstable and Public Utilities staff and the Tribes engineering consultant identified another failure in the George Street station, they announced Thursday. This new failure is resulting in reduced pressure and water flows from the Tewee Reservoir to the South East reservoir.  The South East reservoir provides water to both the Greeley Heights and the West Hills reservoirs. All three reservoir levels are critically low. Residents and businesses are urged to continue conservation efforts so that your neighborhood will have continued access to water. Refrain from watering lawns or washing cars and take steps to ensure that all outdoor faucets at your residence are shut off.

The engineering assessment of pressure reducing valves in 7 stations within the system has been completed and procurement of materials needed to conduct critical repairs is underway. The construction timeline is subject to the availability of materials – all efforts are being done to expedite this process.

Low water pressure is expected throughout the system for all residences and businesses south of Highway 26. Water outages are occurring in the West Hills neighborhood.  Water levels in the Greeley Heights reservoir and the South East reservoir are critically low and will result in water outages if immediate steps are not taken to conserve water.

The boil water notice remains in effect until further notice for the entirety of the Warm Springs Agency area.

Drinking Water distribution will take place weekdays 7:30am – 6pm and weekends 10am-3pm at the old Warm Springs Elementary.

Warm Springs Early Childhood Education will not open next week as anticipated. Due to low water pressure and potential water outages, as a state licensed child care facility, they cannot open to children.  When a new target date for reopening is selected, families will be notified.

Officials say six wolf pups have been born this year to Oregon’s White River wolf pack in the Mount Hood area. Biologists with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs posted footage of the pups from a trail camera that was shared on Facebook by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Oregon. The White River Pack is located just southeast of Mount Hood and east of Timothy Lake. The latest wolf count shows Oregon is home to a minimum of 137 wolves. The majority are clustered in northeast Oregon.