FALL 2018 NEWSLETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BILL GAFFI It is inspiring to watch the As we prepare for year three of Paseos Verdes, the Tree for Clean Water Institute (CWI), All Health Walks program, we have new partners coming on alongside dozens of other board. The City of Hillsboro, Virginia Garcia Memorial Health partners, implement Tree for Center and Tualatin Riverkeepers are helping expand this All, one of the nation’s largest program with participation from local healthcare providers and most successful landscape and additional walks in Forest Grove, Hillsboro and Beaverton. conservation programs. Seeing CWI continues to be a catalyst for this emerging opportunity. more than 140 river miles restored across thousands of rural and urban acres means we are creating the kind of watershed As I look forward to 2019, I anticipate unprecedented resilience needed to offset the stressors associated with opportunities for further restoration of the Tualatin River interesting weather events and active urbanization. Watershed. Balm Grove Dam will come down, opening up more than 35 miles of intact high-value spawning habitat. It also means that we are creating a legacy for future The long-needed Wapato Lake Pumping Infrastructure generations. Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge, one of Project will break ground. And just a dozen years since the the nation’s newest refuges, is a prime place to witness this launch of Tree for All, partners will pass the 10 million mark kind of impact. For more than a decade, Clean Water in our planting of native trees and shrubs. Even the most Services, Joint Water Commission, US Fish and Wildlife committed individual planting 50 trees a day would take 500 Service, Tualatin Riverkeepers and the local agricultural years to put that many in the ground. With transformational community have been working together to restore Wapato partnership, anything is possible. Lake. More recently, CWI was asked to help secure additional funding to help this 1,000-acre restoration project get off the ground. The Clean Water Institute’s 501(c)(3) status helped to secure Intel Corp and Joint Water Commission support targeted at non-profit corporations. Bill Gaffi TUALATIN RIVER WATERSHED PARTNERSHIPS WAPATO EVENT TIMELINE 2007 • Unusually heavy rains cause Wapato levee breach. • Joint Water Commission (JWC) helps Wapato Improvement District (WID) repair levee and drain lakebed for farming. • US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) adds “Wapato Unit” to the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge WID remains responsible for levees and draining of lakebed. 2008 • Large algal bloom in lower Tualatin River. • Public health advisory posted for lower 10.8 miles of river, from Lake Oswego to Highway 99. • JWC receives taste and odor complaints requiring additional $250K in drinking water treatment costs; irrigation and industrial water supplies also impacted. Larry Klimek, USFWS Wapato Refuge Manager 2010 • Wapato Improvement District large pump fails. Tualatin WAPATO LAKE RESTORATION: POWER OF PARTNERSHIPS Basin partners assist with draining the lakebed for farming. FOR HOLISTIC WATERSHED MANAGEMENT Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge is one of the highest-value wetland resources in Oregon and is critical to the health of the Tualatin River 2014 • CWS/USFWS sign collaborative agreement to protect Watershed. Located along the Tualatin River near Gaston, Oregon, Wapato water quality and restore the wetlands and wildlife Lake provides valuable fish and wildlife habitat, agricultural irrigation, flood habitat at Wapato Lake. water storage, and protects critical downstream drinking water supplies. In the decade since the 2007-08 Wapato Lake levee breech and the large algal bloom in the lower Tualatin River, US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), local 2015 • USGS report identifies Wapato Lake as source of utilities, state agencies, non-profits and local agricultural partners have 2008 algal bloom. joined together to create a long-term strategy for the restoration of this vital natural resource. 2016 Thanks to federal support and USFWS leadership, more than $1 million in • Large pump at Wapato fails. local funding was secured from CWS, the Joint Water Commission, the • Partners (USFWS, JWC, CWS, DEQ) work together to fix the pump and update water quality monitoring Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District and other local partners. The plan for Wapato Lake. Clean Water Institute is able to secure funding available to regional non-profit organizations. This includes a $250,000 grant from Intel Corp. and a $40,000 grant from the JWC to the Clean Water Institute. Working in partnership with 2017 • Draft Environmental Assessment lays out preferred the Columbia Land Trust, Clean Water Services and the Clean Water Institute management strategy, including measures to protect secured $500,000 from the USFWS’ North American Wetlands Conservation water quality in Tualatin River. Act (NAWCA) grant. This pioneering public/private partnership will help repair the pumping infrastructure and accelerate the restoration of the lake to protect the downstream drinking water supply; improve fish and wildlife 2018 • USFWS secures $1.2 million to replace pumping habitat and protect water quality. infrastructure. Matching funds from Intel, TSWCD, JWC, NAWCA grant. In late 2017, with the restoration strategy complete and initial funding in • Collaborative team (USFWS, JWC, CWI, CWS) completes design phase of Wapato Lake Pumping place, partners began to implement the on-the-ground actions needed to Infrastructure Replacement project. protect water quality; create diverse wetland and riparian wildlife habitat; • Site preparation and management of introduced and protect the interests of downstream industrial, agricultural and recreational plants for revegation begins. users. Learn more at jointreeforall.org/wapato-lake. 2019 • Construction launch. TUALATIN RIVER WATERSHED PARTNERSHIPS TUALATIN RIVER WATERSHED PARTNERSHIPS KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE: HOW TREE FOR ALL’S PARTNERSHIPS ACHIEVE LARGE-SCALE RESTORATION GOALS This past October in Spokane, Washington, the Clean Water Institute, in partnership with Clean Water Services and the Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District, promoted knowledge exchange via a three-hour symposium at the Society for Ecological Restoration regional conference. Presenters provided an integrated look into how the region’s Tree for All partners work together to achieve landscape-scale ecological enhancement goals, such as planting over two million trees in 2015, and restoring over 140 miles of streamside habitat along the Tualatin River and its tributaries. Learn more at jointreeforall.org. HEALTH AND NATURE WALKS Paseos Verdes underwent an exciting second-year expansion in 2018. Program partners and professional educators created educational content for a bilingual naturalist training and delivered it, in Spanish and English, to a cohort of five bilingual and bicultural Washington County residents at a day-long naturalist training session. The program returned to Fernhill and expanded to Jackson Bottom Wetlands with a total of six walks over the course of the summer. Participants were multi-generational and residents of affordable housing communities operated by Bienestar. A self-guided interpretive tour of Fernhill using QR codes and informed by the Paseos Verdes framework is expected to launch in the summer of 2019. Learn more at jointreeforall.org/healthbenefits. INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP: CHINA On November 29, the Clean Water Institute presented to an audience of thousands at the Smart Water International Online Forum, organized by the Water DNA and the Chinese Environmental Scholars & Professionals Network. Speakers from the water industry and universities worldwide focused on the most cutting-edge technologies in the smart water field. The forum was hosted in Chinese and attracted thousands of participants from industry, government and research institutions in China. RESOURCE RECOVERY: MINING THE INFLUENT STREAM CLEAN WATER GROW: GAINING CREDIBILITY AND SUPPORT FOR RESOURCE RECOVERY THROUGH CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR CHANGE Clean Water Grow® is a powerful, Last year, total GROW sales increased community as an innovator and tangible, personal way of telling the by 100 percent, and the GROW team provider of choice. In partnership resource recovery story. Created in 2012, launched three new blends for a quartet with Ostara, the Clean Water Institute GROW is produced and sold by the Clean product line. Most importantly, the will also leverage Clean Water Grow® Water Institute in collaboration with Clean Clean Water Grow® messaging and to encourage resource recovery Water Services. The slow-release fertilizer retail program advances the Institute’s facilities to add WASSTRIP® to their contains Crystal Green® recovered from mission to promote resource recovery nutrient recovery systems. Learn more used water at the Durham and Rock Creek and environmental protection. at cleanwatergrow.com. resource recovery facilities through Ostara’s nutrient recovery system. The result is a Over the next year, the Clean Water CRYSTAL GREEN® BREAKS high-performing retail product that benefits Institute will discuss GROW with five RESOURCE RECOVERY RECORDS resource recovery facilities around the the environment, improves operation and Last year, CWS’ Durham and maintenance of the resource recovery country —the largest in Chicago — that Rock Creek resource recovery process and provides the community with are already using the Ostara nutrient facilities