Water Restoration in Oregon
To support Intel’s commitment to achieve net positive water use, we have funded seven water restoration projects benefiting Oregon. Once fully implemented, these projects will restore an estimated 538 million gallons each year. This page provides a summary of Intel-funded projects to support Oregon’s water resources.
Chicken Creek Channel Restoration and Enhancement Project
Location: Tualatin River Basin, Oregon
Implementation Partner: Friends of the Tualatin National Wildlife Refuge
Estimated Restoration Benefit1: 20 million gallons/year (MGY)
Project Status: Initiated in 2020
Project Description: Chicken Creek crosses the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge prior to draining into the Tualatin River. Over 100 years ago, Chicken Creek was straightened and shortened into a ditch to drain the existing wetlands to support farming in the area. This led to impacts on wildlife habitat and caused an increase in sediment carried directly to the Tualatin River from Chicken Creek. This project aims to increase floodplain inundation on the Refuge, which will provide stormwater and habitat benefits by increasing biodiversity and improved water quality and water storage within the floodplain.
Deer Creek Floodplain Enhancement Project
Location: Willamette River Basin, Oregon
Implementation Partner: McKenzie Watershed Alliance
Estimated Restoration Benefit: 20 million gallons/year (MGY)
Project Status: Initiated in 2020
Project Description: Deer Creek, a tributary of the McKenzie River within the Willamette River Basin, delivers drinking water to the area and provides important habitat for numerous fish species. This project aims to reconnect and restore flow to the entire Valley bottom to reestablish natural flows and physical, chemical, and biological processes that support a healthy and resilient ecosystem.
McKenzie River Floodplain Enhancement
Location: Willamette River Basin, Oregon
Implementation Partner: McKenzie Watershed Alliance
Estimated Restoration Benefit: 90 million gallons/year (MGY)
Project Status: Initiated in 2019; began restoring water in 2019
Project Description: The McKenzie River is an important tributary to the Willamette River Basin, delivering clean drinking water to Eugene and serving as an important area for threatened fish species. The project aims to reconnect and restore flow to the South Fork McKenzie River that provides critical habitat for these at-risk species as well as improve water quality and hydrological function, benefitting fish and recreational users.
Middle Deschutes Instream Flow Restoration
Location: Deschutes River, Oregon
Implementation Partner: The Deschutes River Conservancy
Estimated Restoration Benefit: 112 MGY
Project Status: Initiated in 2018; began restoring water in 2019
Project Description: The Deschutes River offers miles of camping, floating, hiking, and fishing in Central Oregon. Since the late 1800s/early 1900s, the Middle Deschutes has been heavily impacted by water withdrawals, including some of the state’s largest irrigation diversions, resulting in the river being severely depleted during the summer months causing higher stream temperatures, inadequate habitat to support healthy native trout populations, and a decline in overall river health. This project, a continuation of The Deschutes River Conservancy (DRC) water leasing program, works collaboratively with irrigation districts and farmers to voluntarily leave their water instream for an agreed upon period, thereby restoring flows in the river.
Bowers Rock State Park Side Channel Restoration
Location: Willamette River Basin, Oregon
Implementation Partner: Calapooia Watershed Council
Estimated Restoration Benefit: 167 MGY
Project Status: Initiated in 2018
Project Description: Side channels that meander through the Willamette River floodplain are critical to ecological health and provide a diversity of flows, temperatures, and habitat for a variety of species. This project involves restoration of natural river flow to a side channel complex within the 568-acre Bowers Rock State Park that has been cut off from Willamette River flows by former gravel mining operations and levees, and will provide a diversity of off-channel habitats for fish and wildlife, facilitate fish passage, and provide winter rearing benefits to fish.
Horseshoe Lake Oxbow Restoration
Location: Willamette River, Oregon
Implementation Partner: Greenbelt Land Trust
Estimated Restoration Benefit: 41 MGY
Project Status: Initiated in 2018; began restoring water in 2020
Project Description: Horseshoe Lake is an historic oxbow located on a floodplain on the east bank of the Willamette River that supports wetlands, prairie, and riparian forests that are permanently protected through conservation easements and managed by the Greenbelt Land Trust. This project aims to restore flow exchange between the Willamette River and the oxbow during the critical winter rearing period to provide habitat for Endangered Species Act-listed salmonids and other fish and wildlife species, to help with flood attenuation, and to restore floodplain function.
Wapato Lake Restoration and Management
Location: Tualatin River, Oregon
Implementation Partner: Clean Water Institute
Estimated Restoration Benefit: 89 MGY
Project Status: Initiated in 2018
Project Description: Wapato Lake—part of the Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge—is an historic lake and wetland area that has been managed for decades using levees and pumps to drain winter runoff from the site for farming. To ensure proper water management that provides aquatic and wetland habitat for a variety of wintering waterfowl and migratory bird species, the project will replace the existing unreliable infrastructure.
Intel in Oregon
We’re committed to creating a better tomorrow for our communities. Learn more about what Intel is doing in Oregon.
Projects by Location
Explore water restoration projects by location.
2030 Goal: Net Positive Water Use
Over the last two decades, our sustainable water management efforts have enabled us to conserve billions of gallons of water and return approximately 80% of our water use back to our communities. Now, we are broadening our focus to achieve net positive water use by conserving 60 billion gallons of water and funding water projects that restore more fresh water than we consume to our local watersheds.