Seal Rock Water District Expects to Meet Demand this Summer – Multi-district Effort Underway to Elevate the Value of Water

by Brian Bahouth

A narrated interview with Adam Denlinger, General Manager of the Seal Rock Water District

Through far-flung, oftentimes aging infrastructure and shifting climate conditions, the water districts of Lincoln County reliably and sustainably gather, treat and distribute potable water to homes and businesses. Despite their seeming permanence, these districts almost exclusively rely on a vast network of fairly spindly surface streams for supply, and this summer, a lack of rain, low stream flows, and low soil moisture have prompted a formal declaration of drought in Lincoln County. 

Adam Denlinger is general manager of the Seal Rock Water District and said the chore of collecting, treating and distributing water through 65 miles of piping remains much the same during times of drought as times of surplus. What’s different for Denlinger during drought is that the District has an ethical obligation to share detailed information about water availability with users.  

“We’re trying to educate our community, inform our community about conditions that are affecting the availability of water, and maybe to some extent, to elevate the value of water in the minds of those people that are using it here on the mid-coast,” Denlinger said during a recent interview in his office.

In response to the drought declaration, the Seal Rock Water District sent a letter to their nearly 2,600 water tap holders asking them to curb their water use and think about the immense value and fragile availability of water. Imparting the existential value of water in the minds of users is an ongoing goal for Adam Denlinger, especially in a landscape where water is plentiful when rain is falling, but there is no snowpack or significant underground storage to feed wells and streams during dry times.

Mid-Coast Water Conservation Consortium

Denlinger says outreach through the water districts, Mid-Coast Water Conservation Consortium, and media outlets are important methods for elevating the value of water in users’ minds, but Denlinger wants to emphasize that deepening coastal weather cycles mean water is precious and not to be taken for granted.

“We often place the value of water on how much it costs us, but when you really consider water and being at the heartbeat of daily life, how much value would you place on that water if it wasn’t there,” Denlinger asked. “Well, in Lincoln County right now, some of our communities are dealing with water scarcity. Certainly, we’re seeing that in communities to the south of us, and we’re seeing that now beginning to play out on the Siletz River and in areas where springs and wells are drying up because of low flow in our systems. We cannot continue to take water for granted. It’s something we have to address. The only way we can do that is by having the honest conversation.”

The Mid-Coast Water Conservation Consortium is made up of the water districts in Lincoln City, Newport, Toledo, Seal Rock, Waldport, and Yachats. The Consortium exists to educate water users about the critical importance of conservation and to make the water systems collectively more resilient to drought and other potential impacts to operation.

Water System Interconnectedness Makes for Greater Drought Resilience

The Seal Rock Water District has roughly 2,600 water taps and generally serves 5,000 residents or so, a number that increases to around 8,000 during the summer months. 

Beginning in the mid-1970s, Seal Rock relied on a water pipeline from the city of Toledo for its supply. In 2015, the Seal Rock and Newport Water Districts built an emergency-source water connection between the two systems to share water in times of need. In 2022 the Seal Rock District increased regional water collection capacity when they began taking and treating water from Beaver Creek and supplying it to the community. For Denlinger, system interconnectedness is critical for drought resiliency.

“This is the kind of resiliency I think that the mid-coast region can benefit from,” Denlinger said. “In other words, we hope to be able to have a similar connection to our neighbors to the south of us where there are already interconnections with districts and cities there that provide the same kind of resilient systems to help provide water in those times when water availability is kind of challenging.”

Beaver Creek near the Seal Rock Water District water intake – Brian Bahouth

This summer, that the Seal Rock District is taking water from Beaver Creek and not the City of Toledo, could be the difference between meeting and not meeting demand.

“The Siletz River is so impaired for flow right now that there would be some concern of whether or not the district would have a supply of water this time of year without the Beaver Creek system,” Denlinger said.

Denlinger is quick to add that Beaver Creek’s current mid-summer flow conditions look more like lesser flows typically seen in August or September, but, there is enough flow to meet demand.

“We still have plenty of flow for our community, and we can envision that we won’t have any issues meeting demand.”

Even though the District expects to be able to meet demand, Denlinger says there are many water-related issues that cause him to worry.

“There’s many things that probably keep me up at night when you’re managing a system like this, and you have a community that is relying on you to provide that water to them. And that’s an expectation we want to meet as a water district. But I think what really bothers me the most is we only really talk about the issue of water when it’s threatened or not there, and we are a county that is growing. We have seen tremendous growth in our district in the past 10 years, and there’s only so much available water. If we don’t learn to steward that water collectively and collaboratively, and that’s why we developed the Mid-Coast Water Conservation Consortium, a group of community water providers, cities and special districts, to work together to provide that message to our community about conservation, because we can’t make more water. We only have so much water available. If we don’t learn how to steward that water collectively, and it begins with the people that are making decisions about water, but we have to educate our communities about those conditions, so that they can be more informed and help us to steward that water.” 

Water system operators work constantly to improve the efficiency of their systems and prevent loss, but ultimately, the onus of conservation falls to end users. According to Adam Denlinger, conservation is one step. He says there needs to be an active collaboration between water providers and end users.   

“I would ask communities that are listening to this message to reach out to their water providers, understand where their water comes from, what’s threatening their waters or their water availability, and find out how they can get involved and conserve water. 

“This collaboration between municipalities and water providers in Lincoln County is fantastic, but it also needs to include the end user. And so we can all come together and understand where our water is coming from, how we can protect it, and make sure it’s there for future generations. I think we have a moral and professional obligation to do that.”