The City of Newport is facing a looming water crisis. Reservoirs are running out faster than they’re filling back up. The city has convened a work group to brainstorm ways to confront the water shortage. KLCC spoke with a local reporter covering the story.
Rick Beasley has lived in Newport since 1994 and reports for the News-Times. “Well, it’s kind of an ironic water crisis, because we’re surrounded by water over here,” he said.
Still, Newport is experiencing unsettling shortfalls in its water delivery system. Beasley was at a recent committee meeting when residential rain barrels were proposed.
“Based on rainfall averages in places like Salem and Eugene in the Willamette Valley, you can get about 36,000 gallons of water off your roof in a year if you’ve got a 2,000 square foot home.”
Beasley said another idea is using treated water from the sewage plant for things like landscape irrigation. And, even for drinking water.
“That was summarily put down by the city manager. He thought that it equated too much to drinking your own urine,” he noted.
Beasley said the Water Supply Management and Conservation Work Group will meet twice more before issuing its report to the Newport City Council.
Beasely said another concern that has come out of the committee meetings is water use disparity. According to one report, single-family residences in Newport used 135 million gallons of water in 2022. Non-residential water use was 679 million gallons.
“It turns out that it takes about 14 gallons of water to finish a pound of shrimp. And 5 and a half gallons to brew a gallon of beer,” Beasley said. “This has always been an industrial port city and right now, industry is using about five times the level of water that residential users are using.”
Beasley expects strong recommendations from the committee but he’s not sure what they’ll be. He said the city is building a $70 million replacement dam (the current ones are earthen) to create a new reservoir. But that could be ten years from completion so no immediate fix there.
At least three cities, Newport, Siletz and Toledo, are capping the Siletz River for their water supplies, Beasley said. The dramatic drawdown on the salmon-bearing river is creating worries. And algae blooms.
“Right now, Newport is unable to bring in more water [from the Siletz River] than it uses across this fragile 7.6 mile pipeline.”
Beasely said between ancient infrastructure and questionable rainfall years, the solution to Newport’s impending water crisis will have significant costs.
“As citizens and residents, we’re all going to have to step to the mark,” he said. “But certainly, industry is going to have to carry its share as it seems to be the big user right now.”
You can find Rick Beasley’s recent story on Newport’s water woes in the Newport News Times.
