They say you don’t miss your water till your well runs dry. Prairie City Mayor Jim Hamsher knows all about that.

When he first won the job, local residents were grappling with what to do about a perennially inadequate water supply. Now, as he steps down after a total of 10 years in office, that problem appears to have been solved for the foreseeable future.

Initially elected in 2004, Hamsher lost a reelection bid after his first two-year term and was out of city government for nearly a decade, although he continued to be involved in Prairie City affairs as a private citizen. After being reelected in 2014, he remained in office until this week, when he was scheduled to hand over the reins to his successor, incoming Mayor Scott Officer.

As he leaves the post, Hamsher said, his proudest accomplishments are having overseen the completion of major improvements to the city’s water system.

“Hopefully, when you leave a job like this, you leave it in a lot better shape than when you came into office,” he said.

The water problem

Prairie City has struggled with an inadequate water supply for as long as he can remember, Hamsher said — in fact, going though old city council minutes, he found references to water shortages as far back as 1969.

His first run for office — which he won by a coin flip after the balloting ended in a tie — was motivated by a desire to help shore up the city’s water supply, which relied on wells that were gradually drying up. In 2005, on Hamsher’s watch, the city drilled a highly productive new well at Faiman Springs, but then stopped short of installing the pipes and pumps needed to tie the well into Prairie City’s municipal water system.

After Hamsher lost the 2006 election, the new mayor and city council decided to go in a different direction. Instead of spending the money to connect the new well, the city decided to build a slow sand filtration system about 3 miles north of town on Dixie Creek. The system uses sand and natural bacteria to filter water obtained through subsurface infiltration galleries, while using less chlorine to treat domestic water.

The project allowed the city to fix another longstanding problem: It was under orders from state regulators to address surface water impacts that could potentially contaminate its drinking water supply.

But while the filtration system was capable of purifying large amounts of water, it did nothing to bring more water into the municipal system. In drought years, when Dixie Creek stopped flowing, the infiltration galleries didn’t collect enough groundwater to supplement the city’s failing wells.

It also placed a cost burden on Prairie City residents. In order to secure a $2 million loan to build the sand filtration system, the state required city officials to raise the base rate for municipal water from $14 to $41 a month.

“It is beneficial now that it’s built,” Hamsher acknowledged. “At least nine months of the year, (the infiltration galleries) produce enough water without having to pump — but not in the summer, when you need it most.”

Emergency measures

The water issue came to a head in the summer of 2017, when a lightning strike damaged the electrical controls on one of the city’s struggling wells. The city declared an emergency and imposed restrictions on outdoor watering throughout the summer. Even so, the water level in the city’s 1 million-gallon reservoir dropped to 4 feet, far below the emergency level of 20 feet.

The next summer, drought conditions made the situation even more dire, with the reservoir dropping to just 1½ feet. Emergency restrictions were again imposed, and this time the city had to resort to trucking water in from John Day.

Meanwhile, under Hamsher’s leadership, the city was working on a project to tie the Faiman Springs well into the municipal water system. Tests showed the well can produce 460 gallons of water per minute, even in late summer — more than enough to supply Prairie City’s peak demand of 350 gpm.

But completing the project would take money, and the debt imposed by the sand filtration system was making it tough to get another loan.

Finally, Business Oregon agreed to provide a $550,000 grant and a 30-year, $950,000 loan at 1.7% interest to cover the cost of the project, which included laying 1.7 miles of pipe and building a pump station. The city was obliged to raise water rates another $8 per month to guarantee the loan.

The city then obtained a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program to offset the loan and help cover the cost of hauling water during the 2018 emergency.

Still, more work remained to be done before the project could break ground.

As the Eagle reported in August 2018, angry Prairie City residents packed the city council chambers during the height of the water emergency to vent their frustration over the water restrictions and demand action to fix the problem. Some wanted to know what was taking so long to complete the well project.

As is often the case, the devil was in the details, from negotiating easements with landowners and obtaining permits to completing archaeological surveys and engineering studies. Eventually, all those obstacles were overcome, and the job got done last summer.

“It’s great to see this finally come to fruition after working on it so long. That’s the reason I ran for mayor, was to fix the water system,” Hamsher said.

“It’ll be a lot better — people won’t have to worry about being shut off or their lawn dying,” he added. “Even if the city experiences some growth in the future, we’ll have enough water.”

The sewer problem

Prairie City’s sewer system also got a major upgrade during Hamsher’s tenure.

When he returned to the mayor’s office after the 2014 election, sewage treatment costs were soaring. The city’s aging sewer pipes were cracked, allowing large amounts of groundwater — as much as 32 million gallons a year, according to Hamsher — to seep into the system.

“It was basically a huge French drain system running through town,” he said.

All of that water had to be pumped to the sewage treatment lagoons on a hill west of town, then pumped again to the spray irrigation system that disperses the treated wastewater, at significant expense.

The infiltration problem was addressed in 2019, when the city used $1.8 million in grants and loans to install new sewer lines. According to Hamsher, the city was able to refinance the loan on an earlier sewer project and use the savings to complete the new work without raising sewer rates.

Ready to move on

Getting the water and sewer projects completed was a tall order, Hamsher said, and he could never have done it on his own.

“Bobbie Brown, the city recorder, and Chris Camareno, our public works director, were instrumental,” he said. He also credited a number of city council members he worked with over the years. “We had some who were really supportive, and that was really helpful.”

During the run-up to the November election, someone put up “Hamsher for Mayor” signs around Prairie City — even though he hadn’t filed for reelection. Hamsher quietly asked the person behind the effort to take the signs down.

Hamsher — who also serves as a commissioner on the Grant County Court — said he was ready to move on. As far as he’s concerned, the job he was elected to do is done.

“That’s the reason I ran for mayor, was to fix the water system,” he said.

“As time goes on, water’s going to be about the most important issue for everyone,” Hamsher added. “Now we can leave more water in the ground with our sewer system, have plenty of drinking water for everyone and be more resilient to drought. That’s why I felt all right about handing things off.”