A state agency will reopen the public comment period on a proposal designed to lower bacteria concentrations in Baker County streams after local officials and residents expressed concerns about restrictions that could harm farms and ranches.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality will open the Powder River Basin Total Maximum Daily Load — TMDL — proposal to public comment, likely in late November, Vanessa Rose, TMDL basin coordinator at DEQ’s Pendleton office, said on Nov. 14.

The Powder Basin project was previously open to public comment from June through August of this year.

DEQ had a public hearing on the topic on Aug. 15 in Baker City, after Doni Bruland, Baker County’s natural resources director, requested a hearing on behalf of the county commissioners. Bruland also asked the state to extend the public comment period through the end of 2023. Based on DEQ’s current plan, the comment period will likely continue for at least the first two months of 2024.

DEQ’s decision to reopen the public comment period is based in part on statements the public made during the Aug. 15 hearing, Harry Esteve, a DEQ spokesman, wrote in an email to the Baker City Herald.

Bruland said that she’s pleased the DEQ is restarting the public comment period.

The delay means the TMDL, and the water quality management plan that will accompany it, will not take effect in 2023, as the DEQ originally planned, Rose said.

In addition to accepting public comments on the various draft TMDL documents available on DEQ’s website — www.oregon.gov/deq/rulemaking/Documents/PowderTMDLm2TMDL.pdf — the agency will schedule a public information session about the project, the date, time and location to be announced later, Rose said.

Curtis Martin, a cattle rancher in the North Powder area and a member of the 10-member advisory committee for the Powder Basin TMDL, said that he considers the DEQ decision to slow the process “a wonderful thing.”

“I do appreciate DEQ for recognizing the interest in this topic,” Martin said. “This is an opportunity to work together to come up with a credible, science-backed solution.”

The problem the TMDL is intended to deal with is the level of bacteria in many Baker County streams — bacteria that could potentially sicken people or animals that are in contact with the water.

Sections of more than a dozen streams in the Powder River Basin exceed the federal standard for bacteria, according to DEQ.

These include the Powder and Burnt Rivers, the North Powder River, Eagle Creek, Dixie Creek, Pine Creek (in eastern Baker County), as well as Unity, Thief Valley, Phillips and Brownlee reservoirs.

What’s a TMDL?

Although the DEQ oversees the process, its impetus is a federal law — the Clean Water Act of 1972.

Under that law, streams that are tested and that exceed federal standards for any of several contaminants — potentially harmful bacteria, temperature, dissolved oxygen and sediment, among others — are added to each state’s list of deficient streams.

In some river basins with such streams, DEQ prepares a TMDL, which lists the contaminants, their likely sources, and how much the pollutants must be reduced to comply with federal limits and, ultimately, remove streams from the list.

The document, which is paired with a water quality management plan, also outlines potential tactics for reducing pollution.

Although sections of several Baker County streams also exceed federal standards for other pollutants, including dissolved oxygen, sediment and temperature (the water is too warm to be healthy for some fish, such as bull trout), the Powder Basin TMDL is specific to bacterial.

The basin encompasses most of Baker County, as well as small parts of Union, Wallowa, Grant and Malheur counties.

According to DEQ, the agency’s “source assessment for the Powder Basin TMDL found that the primary pathways for bacteria to enter waterways are through erosion and runoff from pastures, direct deposition of livestock manure, and transport and delivery of sediment and organic matter containing bacteria.”

Although the DEQ doesn’t pinpoint specific properties as sources, the agency does deem ranching and farming as responsible for about 90% of the “allowable bacteria load overall in the basin,” according to Laura Gleim, public affairs specialist for DEQ’s Eastern Region.

Some sections of stream would require reductions in bacterial load of 40% to 95% to meet water quality standards, according to the draft TMDL for the Powder basin.

Bruland and Martin object to those estimates, as does County Commissioner Christina Witham.

Bruland, in her letter this summer to the DEQ and to Gov. Tina Kotek requesting the public hearing that eventually happened Aug. 15, asked the agency to determine the cost/benefit ratio of reducing bacterial levels and to supply at least five more years of water sample testing data, including DNA samples to determine the source of the bacteria.

Martin contends that DEQ can’t justify its estimate that 90% of the bacterial contamination stems from agriculture unless the agency has done DNA studies to distinguish between bacteria that comes from wildlife, such as deer and elk, rather than cattle and other livestock.

The TMDL, along with its associated water quality management plan, “will require those that contribute bacteria to the basin’s waterways to apply controls to reduce those contributions,” according to DEQ documents. “These practices are straightforward and include manure and pasture management, irrigation improvements, and streamside management to prevent erosion and runoff from fields. Action will not be needed everywhere in the basin, and significance of action will vary depending on specific conditions and practices already in use.”

Bruland said direct costs to ranchers and farmers isn’t the only potentially harmful effect of the process, however.

The TMDL applies not only to private property, but also to public land. About half of Baker County’s 2 million acres are managed by either the U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management. Those agencies oversee grazing allotments where many of Baker County’s cattle graze during the spring, summer or fall.

Bruland said she fears that the federal agencies might be required to reduce cattle numbers on public allotments to comply with TMDL requirements. That would force ranchers to either find alternative grazing land, or cull their herds. Because private grazing land is considerably more expensive to lease than public land, either option could prove expensive, Bruland said, or even potentially force some ranchers out of business.

“I do appreciate DEQ for recognizing the interest in this topic. This is an opportunity to work together to come up with a credible, science-backed solution.”

— Curtis Martin, cattle rancher, talking about a proposed plan to reduce bacterial levels in Baker County streams