<p><span style="color: #444e5c; font-size: 13px;">Columbia River water is scheduled to start flooding into a big leaky pond near here early Saturday as part of a historic effort to recharge the Umatilla Basin's long-depleted underground aquifers.&nbsp;<br style="vertical-align: bottom; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" /><br style="vertical-align: bottom; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" />Water for irrigation has become an increasingly scarce commodity since the 1970s in this parched northeastern Oregon farming region between Irrigon and the Blue</span></p>