The City of Salem provides water to approximately 200,000 residents and businesses through a combination of surface water and groundwater sources. GSI has provided on-call water rights consulting and water resources management support to the City of Salem since 2007. Over the years, GSI has helped the City ensure the reliability and resiliency of its water supply through strategic water rights and water resources planning and management.
GSI’s work involved:
- Developing the City’s 2014 and 2019 Water Management and Conservation Plans—documenting water rights and water use, conservation measures, curtailment planning, and water supply planning for the next 20 years.
- Obtaining extensions of time for the City’s permit authorizing use of water from a collector well on Geren Island, and the permit authorizing use of water from the Willamette River.
- Evaluating the City’s water rights at Geren Island, providing water rights analysis of water appropriation alternatives, and analyzing options for use of its Willamette River permit.
- Assisting with obtaining water right certificates for transferred water rights and working with the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) to revert a transferred water right to its original point of diversion.
- Developing numerous water rights transaction applications in support of the City’s Geren Island collector well expansion project.
- Supporting the City’s source water protection efforts, including helping coordinate collaborative watershed management activities in the North Santiam Watershed.