page_title: Malheur River
section_title: River modifications
hierarchical_section_title: Malheur River / River modifications
caption_attribution_description: English: Bully Creek Dam with height perspective through human subjects.
context_page_description: The Malheur River is a 190-mile-long tributary of the Snake River in eastern Oregon in the United States. It drains a high desert area, between the Harney Basin and the Blue Mountains and the Snake.
  Despite the similarity of name, the river does not flow into nearby Malheur Lake, which is located in the enclosed Harney Basin southwest of the watershed of the river. When water levels were higher, Malheur Lake would drain into the Malheur River.
context_section_description: The lower Malheur River is used for irrigation in the agricultural potato-growing in the Snake River Plain along the Idaho-Oregon border.
  There are approximately 370 miles (600 km) of irrigation-related canals and ditches in the lower basin of the Malheur River and its tributary Willow Creek. The streamflow of the Malheur and its tributaries is heavily influenced by a complex system of irrigation diversions, siphons, and canals, which begin near Malheur river mile 65, near Namorf and Harper, Oregon. This irrigation system extends downstream to the mouth of the Malheur at Ontario, Oregon. Irrigation is used on about 132,000 acres (530 km²) within the Malheur River basin. The irrigation system is part of the Bureau of Reclamation's Vale Project, which includes a number of water impoundments, the largest of which are Warm Springs Reservoir on the mainstem Malheur River, Beulah Reservoir on the North Fork Malheur, Bully Creek Reservoir on Bully Creek, and Malheur Reservoir on Willow Creek. The project is operated and maintained by the Vale-Oregon Irrigation District.
  Agricultural runoff has resulted in a phosphorus pollution problem in its lower reaches.
caption: Bully Creek Dam in height perspective with human subjects
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