Kingsley Reservoir Opening Delayed Until Summer of 2021

A photo taken on August 27, 2019 shows the current level of the de-watered reservoir. Photo courtesy of Farmers Irrigation District

By Ben Mitchell. Sept. 19, 2019. Kingsley Reservoir is an important recreation area and water source for the Hood River Valley, but if you’re looking to visit it any time soon, you’re out of luck.

The reservoir, located roughly 30 minutes southwest of Hood River, has been closed since September 2017, due to a Farmers Irrigation District (FID) project to improve infrastructure at the reservoir. Part of that project includes raising the dam at Kingsley 11 feet, resulting in a partial flooding of the surrounding Kingsley Campground, which will need to be relocated. FID provides water to 5,800 acres of land on the west side of the valley, and Kingsley Reservoir is one of its resources.

Originally, the reservoir and the campground were slated to reopen May 1, 2019 to the boaters, campers, and OHV riders who frequent the area. But the summer of 2019 has come and gone, Kingsley is still closed, and worse, will remain so for almost another two years.

In an email to Columbia Insight, Doug Thiesies, County Forest Manager of the Hood River County Forestry Department (which manages the recreation facilities at Kingsley) stated that the most updated timeline gives a projected opening of June 2021 for the day use area, and July 2021 for the campground.

FID General/District Manager Les Perkins told Columbia Insight that holdups in the permitting process have had a major role in extending the project timeline.

“I think most projects are experiencing delays. Part of it has to do with the lack of staffing both at the state and federal level,” he explained. “So, for each person who’s working on permits, they have a bigger caseload than they have in the past. So, there’s fewer resources in terms of people processing permits.”

The $3.5 million project is funded through a combination of a grant from the Oregon Water Resources Department’s Water Supply Development Account and money from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund, but Perkins noted that FID can’t access those funds until they receive removable fill permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. As a result of the permitting delays, Perkins said that FID and contractor Crestline Construction “weren’t able to work on anything this year.”

Perkins does, however, expect that work at Kingsley Reservoir will be able to move forward soon, as FID recently received a much-needed permit from DEQ, and the Army Corps of Engineers informed Perkins the removable fill permit will be issued at the end of September.

This map shows the high water line before the project began, as well as the future high water line. Map courtesy of Farmers Irrigation District 

While expansion of Kingsley Reservoir has been considered as far back as the 1950s, the project has increased in importance since then, as providing sufficient water supply for the Hood River Valley’s valuable agricultural industry, as well as other user groups, has become more of an issue. This summer, FID posted a warning on the front page of its website stating that the Hood River’s streamflows are “extremely low… with reservoirs almost empty and little streamflow entering diversions.” FID also asked customers to cut back their water usage by at least 25 percent, and noted that “water delivery will end when the reservoirs are empty.” Perkins said last week that he expected the district to run out of reservoir water before the end of irrigation season.

Studies show that climate change is contributing to this problem, leading to declining snow packs around the west, and in turn, putting a strain on irrigation. In a previous article on the Kingsley Reservoir project, Columbia Insight referred to a 2015 Hood River Basin study by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation that showed there was not “adequate streamflow” during the summer to keep up with demand. And earlier this month, OPB published a report from Portland State University’s Climate Science Lab that shows that climate change is contributing to reduced snowpacks in the West, which means less water in the summer.

It’s an issue that is very much on Perkins’s mind.

“We just know looking at stream flows and snow pack, that the issue is not going to get better in terms of late-season stream flows, so we can see the writing on the wall,” he said.

While FID waits on their project, the Hood River County Forestry Department is also waiting on theirs. While FID is compensating the county for the campsites inundated by the raising of the dam, the county is taking this opportunity to implement additional improvements to the recreation facilities at Kingsley Reservoir, including an updated campground with up to 65 sites, a new boat ramp, more restrooms, a footpath around the reservoir, and more. However, Thiesies noted that the campground’s opening date could also be pushed back, as budget cuts means the department does not have a recreation trails coordinator, who “has oversight of the campground and helps procure grant funding.”