Few places on the U.S. map were hit as hard by recession as Prineville, Ore., a small town of 10,000 whose unemployment rate recently hit 21 percent.

So when Facebook recently opened a $188 million data center there -- building and stocking a warehouse with racks of computers and creating construction work along with 35 permanent jobs -- the town rejoiced.

"How can you apply for a job?" one local man wrote on the new Prineville Data Center's Facebook "wall" earlier this month. The man, pictured with his wife and three children on his own Facebook page, listed as his "interests" a local pastor, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the Prineville Data Center.

Now two new undisclosed high-tech firms are considering building two more "server farms" in Prineville, town leaders say. But there is a problem: Prineville doesn't have enough water to supply another server farm, the cooling systems for which can require massive amounts of water.

On Thursday the House Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on a bill (H.R. 2060) introduced by Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) that would allow the release of another 5,100 acre-feet of water from the Prineville Reservoir on the nearby Crooked River, which would, in turn, allow the town to pump the same amount of additional water from the ground. The reservoir now has about 80,000 acre-feet of unallocated water.

"It is vital to us," Prineville Mayor Betty Roppe said in an interview Friday. Roppe, along with the city manager, will appear at the hearing Thursday to speak in favor of the legislation. "It's really, really important, and we're really proud of Congressman Walden for putting forth this effort."

Walden's bill would slightly increase the minimum flow of water from the dam to help recharge the groundwater and offset the additional pumping. That could benefit fish and wildlife, including a blue-ribbon trout fishery below the dam, according to Walden.

"This small act could be huge for central Oregon," Walden said in a statement. "The common-sense solutions in this plan have the potential to support hundreds of new jobs in a part of the state that needs jobs as badly as anywhere in the entire country."

Not everyone supports the plan. Although town officials say they have support of local American Indian tribes and the conservation group Trout Unlimited, another local environmental group, WaterWatch of Oregon, has fought the bill, saying it would reduce river flows to the detriment of fish and wildlife.

"This bill does nothing to improve flows for the Crooked River, and in fact sets things backwards," said Kimberley Priestley, senior policy analyst with WaterWatch of Oregon, told the television station KTVZ in nearby Bend, Ore. "Representative Walden has coined this a jobs bill. Despite this assertion, this bill is a missed opportunity to stimulate what could be a sustainable job engine for Central Oregon -- a healthy, vibrant Crooked River."

Walden's bill would also clear the way for Portland General Electric, which has expressed interest, to develop a small-scale hydroelectric plant at the base of the Bowman Dam, which could generate electricity to power 4,500 homes and create dozens of construction and permanent jobs.

To do so, the bill would have to move the boundary line of a "national wild and scenic river" designation that Congress drew in 1988 along 17.8 miles of the Crooked River, right down the middle of the dam. Hydropower is not permitted in areas so designated. Walden's legislation would move the line a quarter mile downstream from the dam.

"There is nothing wild and scenic about a dam," Walden said.

Walden says a 2008 letter from Bureau of Land Management State Director Ed Shepard indicates that Congress did not intend to draw the line where it did. "The BLM does not believe that it was the intent of Congress to place the wild and scenic river boundary on the center of the dam or to even include the dam, but rather just below the dam and spillway structures," Walden quoted from the letter.

Crook County Commissioner Mike McCabe likewise praised Walden's bill in a statement calling the bill "vital for our community."

"With one of the highest unemployment rates in the country," McCabe said, "we need to find sustainable ways to provide water for businesses, cities, and farmers and ranchers."

Hydropower exemption

The committee will also consider a bill (H.R. 795) from Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) that would exempt small hydropower projects that generate less than one-and-a-half megawatts from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's permitting rules.

"One of the most difficult challenges facing our nation's future is providing clean, affordable and reliable energy," Smith said in a statement. "By focusing attention on small scale projects, we would not only expand hydropower as a viable energy option for rural consumers, but also help our irrigators."

Schedule: The hearing is at 10 a.m. Thursday, June 23, in 1324 Longworth.

Witnesses: Prineville Mayor Betty Roppe; Prineville City Manager Steven Forrester; others TBA.