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Central Oregon still dealing with ‘exceptional’ drought in some areas, despite recent rain and snowfall

KTVZ

January 5, 2023

Central Oregon still dealing with ‘exceptional’ drought in some areas, despite recent rain and snowfall

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Central Oregon is still in a drought, and in some places an exceptional drought, despite recent wet and snowy weather, according to various measurements such as the Oregon Drought Monitor and the latest look at Central Oregon reservoirs from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s “Teacup Diagram.”

According to the latest Oregon Drought Monitor, much of Crook County is in an “exceptional” drought, which is the worst stage. Not far behind are Deschutes and Jefferson counties, which show some areas still being in the “severe drought” zone.

Reservoirs are still low, and even though the latest SNOTEL telemetry readings show Central Oregon has above average snow-water content for the season so far, we’re still below the normal median total precipitation for the water year to date.

“I think three of our reservoirs in the Deschutes River Basin are at or near historical low levels at this point” Deschutes Basin Watermaster Jeremy Giffin said Wednesday. “This is due to several years of prolonged drought. Wickiup Reservoir, our largest reservoir in the basin, which stores 200,000 acre-feet of water, is actually at 40% of where it should be at this time of year.”

But if the winter months continue to bring above-average snow and rain to Central Oregon, could that potentially bring a one-winter-fix-all situation? Giffin isn’t so optimistic.

“While it’s been promising out there with the storms, we still expect drought conditions to continue for the summer of 2023” Giffin said.

So what can you do to preserve water, especially in the summer months? Giffin says to xeriscape your yard.

“The best way to conserve water is probably with lawns, irrigating, to cut back and xerocape those areas. The vast majority of water in the summertime that the city goes through is for outdoor purposes.”

Shon RaeCentral Oregon still dealing with ‘exceptional’ drought in some areas, despite recent rain and snowfall
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Central Oregon Irrigators Ask Counties to Declare Drought

March 3, 2022

On February 21, 2022, the Deschutes Basin Board of Control submitted drought declaration requests to commissioners representing Jefferson, Crook, and Deschutes counties. The letter also requests that Governor Kate Brown issue an executive order, declaring drought in the region.

The primary benefits of a state drought declaration from the Governor are that it creates greater awareness of drought conditions, facilitates coordination between state agencies, and allows the Water Resources Department to provide existing water right holders with access to emergency water management tools.

Despite recent precipitation and snowfall, Central Oregon’s snowpack and precipitation remain below average for the water year. As of March 1, the Upper Deschutes and Crooked River basins were 85% of median for precipitation and just 78% of median for snowpack (Snow Water Equivalent).

Reservoirs are also at or near record lows. Wickiup Reservoir, which stores water for the North Unit Irrigation District farmers located mainly around Culver and Madras, contained 96,373 acre-feet of water as of Tuesday, which is just 48% of capacity. The long-term climate forecast doesn’t anticipate a reversal of the historic drought, and National Weather Service predicts higher than average temperatures and below-average precipitation.

Drought, severe weather conditions, and the upcoming fire season pose significant threats to the tri-county region’s local economy, agriculture, livestock, natural resources, and recreation.

During these extenuating conditions, it may be necessary for the Oregon Water Resources Department and Deschutes Basin irrigation districts to appropriately manage and, in some instances, make changes to individual systems and flow rates at which deliveries are made to district patrons.

“The frequency and intensity of these drought events highlight the urgency to update antiquated irrigation infrastructure through water conservation projects,” said Craig Horrell, president of the Deschutes Basin Board of Control. “We are committed to piping open canals and improving on-farm efficiencies to increase water reliability and conserve water.”

The Deschutes Basin Board of Control comprises eight irrigation districts, including Arnold, Central Oregon, Lone Pine, North Unit, Ochoco, Swalley, Three Sisters, and Tumalo. Collectively they convey water to over 7,600 farms and ranches, as well as local cities, parks, and schools.

 

Shon RaeCentral Oregon Irrigators Ask Counties to Declare Drought
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The Future of the American West Is in Central Oregon

Analysis by Francis Wilkinson | Bloomberg
August 28, 2022 

The Future of the American West Is in Central Oregon

Central Oregon is not the Pacific Northwest. The landscape bears little resemblance to the green and piney coast; there are no rainforests. The region looks more like dusty Nevada. In Portland, on the west side of the Cascade range, it rains three feet per year. On the east side, in Bend, annual rainfall is about one foot, slightly less than the historical average for Los Angeles. This year, like last, water is particularly scarce. Almost two-thirds of the state is in drought.

Central Oregon is part of the American West, what John Wesley Powell called the “arid region” of the US. Historically parched, warped by the occasional deluge, the West is experiencing a drought that may be the worst in 1,200 years. On the August days when I visited irrigation districts near Bend, the fast-growing seat of Deschutes County, the temperature peaked at about 100 degrees. The air had a monotonous consistency, as though any capacity for variation had been sucked dry along with the last vestige of moisture.

In his classic 1986 book on the West, “Cadillac Desert,” Marc Reisner writes that without “a century and a half of messianic effort” to manipulate the flow of water, “the West as we know it would not exist.” Public investment in the region has been largely devoted to managing water, with the goal of manufacturing more habitable land with the potential for crops and livestock. Some of those public projects are astonishingly large; the Hoover Dam uses enough concrete to run a two-lane road, 8 inches thick, from New York to San Francisco. Others are quite modest. But they can mean the difference between local farmers thriving or failing.

Marc Thalacker, manager of the Three Sisters Irrigation District near Bend, has spent much of the past two decades re-engineering a creek. The degree of difficulty involved in altering Whychus Creek, a tributary of the Deschutes River and a source of water for the 200 farms in his district, is a reflection of the visceral stakes, and political complexity, of water in the West. To see his project through, Thalacker needed the skills of an engineer, fundraiser, politician and lobbyist.

Thalacker was raised in suburban New York and later worked in Southern California for a clothing company. After growing disenchanted with California, in 1988 Thalacker and his wife bought a 400-acre ranch, with 200 irrigated acres, and moved to Central Oregon near the small farm then owned by his in-laws.

“I spent the first 10 years killing myself, learning,” Thalacker said. “We raised 200 acres of hay. We had an Arctic freeze the first year, no water for 30 days. I learned how to be a plumber, a welder, an electrician. I built a couple houses.” In 1997, Thalacker took over as manager of Three Sisters, his local water district. There was not great competition for the job.

Irrigation districts are quasi-governmental corporations, subject to state oversight, that deliver water to private “patrons.” The districts can issue bonds to help finance reservoirs and other improvements. Irrigated acreage nationwide has grown from less than 3 million acres in 1890 to more than 58 million acres in 2017. Almost two-thirds of the agriculture in Oregon receives water through an irrigation district. Three Sisters, which has an elected three-person board of directors, provides irrigation water to 7,500 acres of ranches and farms in the Deschutes basin.

Thalacker flings acronyms for government programs and agencies like a veteran Washington bureaucrat, crediting “ARRA” (the 2009 stimulus law, officially called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) for providing a crucial infrastructure boost to his district. He talks of projected changes to the House Committee on Appropriations after this fall’s elections like a baseball fan weighing the merits of a star pitcher’s pending trade. He cites 28 different official “partners and funders” on the Three Sisters irrigation project, from government agencies to environmental groups and private foundations.

Thalacker also speaks rapturously of the properties of high-density polyethylene piping, miles of which he has buried across his district to carry water from the creek to farms. “High density polyethylene is amazing stuff,” he said. “It’s got a hundred- to a thousand-year shelf-life. And you can bend it through S turns.”

In and around the little town of Sisters, Oregon, where Thalacker’s water district has its small headquarters, you can see the results. Thalacker is nearing the promised land, having completed 62 fluid miles of a 65-mile engineering marathon. “Here we are in this horrible drought,” he said, “where we’ve got [neighboring] Arnold Irrigation District already shut down, and we’re delivering 70% of our water right now and it’s almost mid-August. It’s just unprecedented.”

What Thalacker is saying, more or less, is that he has conjured water from a stone. Except in the case of the Three Sisters Irrigation District, it is water from 54-inch high-density polyethylene pipes purchased from a factory in Arizona.

The West has high elevations. Water flows downhill. If you marry those two elementary facts, and run them through a pipe, it’s possible not only to deliver water more efficiently but also to generate a little clean energy.

Energy Trust of Oregon is a nonprofit devoted to supporting energy efficiency and renewable energy. It’s funded by a fee paid by the customers of five utilities that operate in Oregon and Washington, and it’s overseen by the Oregon Public Utility Commission. It’s also a power player, with a sprawling portfolio and a budget to match: $215 million last year, of which about 10% was devoted to renewables. Since 2002, the trust has invested $2.4 billion in energy projects large and small.

An interest in small-scale hydropower led Energy Trust to local irrigation districts. “These aren’t dams,” said Dave Moldal, a senior program manager in the renewable sector. “These are in-conduit, in-pipe, hydropower.”

In effect, if you can funnel enough water volume into a pipe, and then run that pipe into a smaller pipe, thereby increasing the water pressure inside, and direct the entire project downhill, generating even more pressure, you can deliver pressurized water to farms, eliminating the need for electricity-gobbling water pumps. If the details are right, you can also place a small turbine along the way and produce a modest amount of hydropower, which you can sell back to a utility to help pay for the infrastructure upgrade. Thalacker projects that his district’s three mini hydro plants will generate at least $200,000 annually when all are operational next year.

“We see tremendous hydropower potential from modernized irrigation districts,” Modal said. The trust has helped or is helping modernize 26 irrigation districts in Oregon, at a cost of about $14 million. “It’s early-stage capital, critical, that the irrigation districts just don’t have,” he said. Central Oregon Irrigation District, the largest of the local districts being piped, is hoping to generate 20 megawatts of hydropower in-conduit.

To help it reach irrigation districts around the state, Energy Trust contracted in 2015 with Farmers Conservation Alliance, a 501(c)3 group that pursues “water management solutions that benefit both agriculture and the environment.” FCA provides technical expertise to the districts, which are generally short of both money and labor and are often encumbered by significant debt as well.

The Three Sisters district’s annual budget, for example, is $350,000. Total capital costs of its irrigation upgrades over the years come to around $50 million. There is simply no way to generate that level of investment from that kind of budget without a lot of outside assistance.

FCA, based in Hood River, Oregon, helps irrigation districts file a watershed plan, including a cost/benefit analysis, which is necessary to seek federal funding under the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act. After helping districts manage environmental and technical assessments, and access funds, FCA helps them follow through on upgrades. The goal is to change a district’s water delivery system from open ditches and canals, many of which date to the turn of the 20th century, to enclosed, pressurized (and potentially profitable) pipes.

Water is obviously scarce now, and with climate change bearing down, there is a growing recognition that it may be for years to come. The stress of that realization falls especially hard on farm families. “You think about national, mental instability right now,” said Julie Davies O’Shea, executive director of FCA. In addition to worries about Covid, she said, “imagine if you weren’t sure if you were going to get water to your house.”

Besides Oregon, FCA works in California, Colorado, Montana and Nevada — about 40 districts in all. But the group’s roots are in what O’Shea calls the “fish versus farm” battles that pitted Oregon environmentalists against farmers, each arguing over rivers that couldn’t supply enough water to support both fish and agriculture. “It was very adversarial back then,” she said.

To help ease the conflict, in 2005 FCA began marketing a fish screen to prevent fish from being diverted into farm irrigation channels. At the point where water is diverted for agricultural use, the device redirects fish back into the river or stream from which they came. I took a long hard look at Marc Thalacker’s fish screen from a narrow walkway above. But I can’t say I saw much — just a hazy underwater detour that sends fish from a concrete diversion channel through a polyethylene speedway back to the Whychus Creek.

Ultimately, a fish screen only works if there is enough clean water left in the stream, after the farmers have taken their share, for fish to swim and spawn. Western agriculture has been devastating to chinook salmon, bull trout, steelhead trout and other members of the endangered species list. One of the goals of irrigation modernization is to leave not only fish in the stream, but enough water in the stream for the fish to survive.

I am standing in a field of vegetables, getting intermittently soaked by the rotating nozzle of a sprinkler. My guide on this tour of Rainshadow Organics farm is standing tall and sun-drenched in the same sprinkler’s path, unbudging, increasingly soggy and seemingly oblivious. Most of the farm is irrigated by drip lines, which target plants with precision. But not this stretch. So I continue posing questions, and receiving answers, between regular dousings. Once we pass through the sprinkler zone, it takes only minutes for the water on my clothes and skin to evaporate. The temperature is 98 degrees and heading higher.

Sarahlee Lawrence, 40, grew up on this Oregon farm, where her parents raised hay and a fair amount of dust. Throughout her college education, a subsequent master’s program in environmental science and writing, and various adventure tours as a river guide, Lawrence said she harbored no desire to return home to the farm. But then her father contemplated selling the land, and she read Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” a cultural landmark on food production and consumption. She moved back.

Rainshadow now encompasses 27 irrigated acres producing about $300,000 worth of crops annually. “I never had a business plan,” said Lawrence, who is also the author of an acclaimed memoir. What she has instead is an organic showcase featuring everything from heritage hens and plump pigs to kale, beans and kohlrabi. She grows more than 50 varieties of vegetables. Her business is about 30% wholesale, selling to restaurants and markets, and 70% direct to consumer. She does two or three farm-to-table events at the farm weekly and hosts some weddings.

In 2010, her first season back on the farm, Lawrence was getting her water from a canal, which ran to a ditch, which fed a small pond. She pumped water out of the pond to a wheel line that irrigated her fields.

In addition to electricity costs for pumping, Lawrence faced environmental costs. Open canals and ditches collect runoff, distributing chemical fertilizers used by other farms. They also transport weed seeds all down the line, spreading nuisances to every farm that draws water. And because they’re prone to algae and other harmful growth, irrigation districts often spend thousands to ply canals with chemicals to kill the blooms. It’s hard to run an organic farm. It’s harder still when your water is laced with chemicals.

Despite a variety of costly problems stemming from flood irrigation, not everyone in the Three Sisters district was in favor of piping. In the early days, when funds were low and proof of concept less sure, the irrigation project required in-kind contributions from farmers in the form of labor. Lawrence, whose farm is in the Lower Bridge subdistrict of Three Sisters, teamed up with a septuagenarian neighbor to work a front loader, weld and lay pipe. Meanwhile, some locals were surprisingly aggressive in their efforts to stop it.

“It was like the Wild West,” Lawrence said, recalling one neighbor’s effort to physically block the pipe installation. “There were people that did not want the pressurized water. They didn’t want to pipe their ditches because ditches are flowing in the summer, and while it’s not like living on an actual river, it’s a seasonal stream. There’s all this ambiance.”

The pipeline exploited a 400-foot drop in elevation from the reservoir to the terminus, delivering pressurized water to farms. District-wide, Thalacker said, piping saves about $700,000 in electricity costs. By containing the water in pipes, the district was able to increase the water supply, extend the growing season and reduce water use by a third or more. The saved water now finds its way back to the creek, which both federal and state agencies encourage in return for their support. It also reduces the stress on groundwater: Farms that previously drew on wells to supplement their allotments can now afford to leave more well water in the aquifer.

Some farmers objected to returning so much water to the creek, although the infusion has given the fish a fighting chance. Still others simply wanted to do things the way they always had. Meanwhile, a few landowners wanted to be paid to have the new pipeline cross beneath their property in lieu of the open canal.

The conflict eventually produced lawsuits, but not a work stoppage. “We kept moving, and while we were building, they were suing us,” said Thalacker. The irrigation district ultimately prevailed in court.

Lawrence said the pressurized water deliveries now save her several thousand dollars a year in electricity costs. “The amount of money you spend pumping and managing your pond, and the logistics of irrigating, is just a lot,” she said. “It’s an incredible thing to be able to turn on pretty clean pressurized water as an organic farm.”

Water management has always been essential to the West. As a US government history of dam building notes: “With much surface water originating either as seasonal snowmelt or infrequent torrential rainstorms, the ability to support widespread agriculture — as well as mining, municipal growth, and hydroelectric power development — has by necessity become dependent on artificial means of controlling water.”

Those artificial means have rendered desert mirages, such as Phoenix and Las Vegas, real. They have produced thousands of dams, reservoirs and viaducts irrigating farms and ranches that would otherwise shrivel and die. The Colorado River alone is bedecked with 15 dams to engineer water and generate electricity.

Yet the river’s water allotments were oversold from the start. In a good year, the Colorado comes up short of ever-expanding human demand. This year, persistently high heat and lack of precipitation have put the river at risk of “catastrophic collapse,” according to the US Department of Interior.

Water rights in the Deschutes River basin date from the turn of the 20th century, an era when the US population was less than one quarter of what it is today. Around Bend, irrigation districts rely on water rights attained in 1899, 1900, 1905 — when the population of Oregon, now more than 4 million, was a little over 400,000.

“There are seven irrigation districts that pull water off the Deschutes,” said Steve Johnson, manager of the Arnold Irrigation District in Bend. “We’re 1905.” That means the district gets water only after farms in nearby districts, with rights attained in 1899 and 1900, use up their allotments. What the Arnold district’s 1905 rights amounted to on Aug. 9, when I joined Johnson for a tour, was a dry bed of caked dirt and rock in a canal.

“When the water rights were given out here, it was a wet cycle, kind of like when they built Lake Mead and everything else,” Johnson said. “You know, the mindset was ‘man over nature,’ with no regard for environmental flows. I mean, they gave out more water than the river could even naturally provide.”

There used to be enough water for six of the seven irrigation districts to get their allotted shares, Johnson said. But as the region grows hotter and drier, that’s no longer the case. “Now you’re in a situation where there isn’t enough to go around,” Johnson said. “So people get shut off.”

Johnson previously managed the Central Oregon Irrigation District, which was on the front end of the region’s irrigation modernization. There, he worked with Energy Trust of Oregon and other funders, including a trust connected to a confederation of local tribes, to channel pressurized, piped water through a 5-megawatt in-conduit hydropower turbine. The Arnold district, however, is missing a crucial ingredient that contributed to COID’s success: gravity.

“This district does not have significant elevation drop,” Johnson said. “It only drops 40 feet in 12 miles of main canal. So, we’ll realize a little bit of pressure that will help the deliveries to the farmers. But, basically, we need the pipe to conserve the water.”

Because open canals lose anywhere from 40% to 60% in seepage, farms only receive about half the total water that is diverted from the source. As chronic drought drains supplies, the Arnold district has begun running dry earlier each summer. “Three years in a row now we’ve had to turn off our irrigation season early because our legal supply of water has run out,” Johnson said. “We turned off on July 23rd this year. It was July 31st last year. It was August 29th the year before. This is the earliest we’ve had to turn off in 117 years.”

Piping the Arnold district’s canals won’t generate power, but it would keep the water flowing longer. “If our main canal had been piped last year, instead of having to turn off in July, we would’ve been able to get water into September,” Johnson said. “The same for this year. It’s kind of simple math.”

Reduced water supplies mean the Arnold district’s farmers earn less money, and return less money to the local economy. “Because the drought has decreased the water supply, and we can’t provide water through the whole irrigation season, people can’t raise enough hay or crops to make a living or feed their animals,” he said. “I’ve already talked to two guys this year who are selling their farms to get out of Arnold to move into Central Oregon Irrigation District, where they’re going to be able to have a water supply. People are selling because they don’t have enough water to utilize their land.”

The water supply is not only shrinking, it’s also being delivered earlier. “Snow pack melts, except at real high elevations, and that supplies water to the streams,” Michael Campana, a hydrologist at Oregon State University, told me. But climate change, he said, is starting to trigger snow melt earlier in the year. The result is that water reaches streams before either farms or spawning fish are ready to make full use of it. New water storage techniques may become necessary, along with more efficient delivery.

In California, a robust debate is under way about what types of crops should be raised in an arid climate with large urban populations and declining water supplies. Carrot seed, hay, alfalfa, hemp and cattle are currently prominent in Central Oregon. Researchers at Oregon State University and elsewhere are exploring alternate crops, some of which could potentially be raised during alternate growing seasons.

There is also the possibility of conserving water by paying farmers in parched terrain to stop farming altogether. Over beers at a local hangout, Marc Thalacker had a visceral response to that proposal, speaking with an edge I hadn’t heard before. It is an “actual, established fact,” he said, that the world must double its food supply by 2050. “I don’t think America is ready for empty shelves.”

Central Oregon is making progress, but it’s still not fully piped. It has taken years of effort by small irrigation districts with limited resources to get this far. The Inflation Reduction Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in August should help. The bill includes $4.6 billion to support drought adaptation in agricultural regions, and another $18 billion for the Department of Agriculture’s conservation programs, which can be used for irrigation modernization.

The engineering of water is evolving from preoccupation to obsession in much of the West. But even in the best-case scenario, it’s highly unlikely that water will become more plentiful anytime soon. “This is the West,” said Steve Johnson. “Water in the West is always an issue.”

Shon RaeThe Future of the American West Is in Central Oregon
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Final Plans Approved for Arnold Irrigation District Infrastructure Modernization Project

KTVZ
Published 
Final Plans Approved for Arnold Irrigation District Infrastructure Modernization Project

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — The Arnold Irrigation District announced this week that it has received final federal authorization for its 12-mile canal-piping project, which should allow construction to start in the new year — but a federal lawsuit brought by opponents of the project also will continue through the courts into 2023.

Here’s the irrigation district’s announcement:

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Oregon has released a Final Watershed Plan-Environmental Assessment and a Finding of No Significant Impact for the Arnold Irrigation District Infrastructure Modernization Project.

NRCS Oregon has determined that the project will not cause significant local, regional, or national impacts to the environment. With a completed environmental assessment in place, the project is now eligible for federal funding and may move forward into final design and construction.

The project will pipe 11.9 miles of the District’s Main Canal in four phases. Piping will begin at the eastern end of the Main Canal and stop about 1.5 miles from the District’s diversion on the Deschutes River. The project will not modify or affect the District’s existing flume. The project will improve water conservation in District-owned infrastructure; improve water supply management and delivery reliability to District patrons; increase drought resiliency; improve public safety on up to 11.9 miles of the Main Canal; and enhance streamflow in the Deschutes River.

By converting the open-ditch irrigation canal into a buried, closed-pipe system, the Arnold Irrigation District Infrastructure Modernization Project will reduce water loss from seepage, saving an estimated 32.5 cubic feet per second of water or 11,083 acre-feet annually. Water saved from the project will pass to North Unit Irrigation District during the irrigation season for agricultural use. In return, North Unit Irrigation District will release an equal volume of water into the Deschutes River from Wickiup Reservoir during the non-irrigation season.

The project is a joint effort among NRCS Oregon, Arnold Irrigation District, Deschutes Basin Board of Control, Energy Trust of Oregon, and Farmers Conservation Alliance, in coordination with other agencies, stakeholders, and the public.

The Final EA and other supporting documents for the project are available at: oregonwatershedplans.org/arnold-id.

The project may be partially funded through the Watershed and Flood Prevention Program, administered by NRCS and authorized by Public Law 83-566. Through this program, NRCS provides technical and financial assistance to local organizations (project sponsors) for planning and carrying out projects that help solve natural resource and related economic problems in a specific watershed. These issues can include watershed protection, flood prevention, erosion and sediment control, water supply, water quality, fish and wildlife habitat enhancement, and wetlands creation.

Shon RaeFinal Plans Approved for Arnold Irrigation District Infrastructure Modernization Project
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Canals are shut, but districts remain busy with piping projects

 Updated 

The canals that deliver water to farms in Central Oregon are shut down in winter, but that doesn’t mean irrigation districts aren’t busy. Empty canals are an opportunity for irrigation districts to make repairs and conduct water conservation projects.

The districts are coming off a very challenging year in irrigation due to a multiyear drought that forced some to slash water allotments to minimal levels and others to shut down early. While piping projects can take years to complete, they will ultimately create larger water allotments even in drought years as open canals lose approximately half their water into the ground.

One of the biggest canal upgrade projects this winter is happening in the smallest irrigation district. Lone Pine Irrigation District, which serves just 22 patrons, has started construction on a piping project that will wrap up in early 2025.

The project will install 10.9 miles of pressurized buried pipe and decommission 9.7 miles of open canal.

The $9.3 million project — $6.9 million to be paid with federal grants — will conserve 2,100 acre-feet of water annually. An acre-foot of water is the amount of water that would cover one acre of ground in one foot of water.

Construction began in October for the replacement of the district’s L-lateral canal, which is being converted from an open canal to an enclosed pipe and is scheduled for completion in March.

Tumalo Irrigation District is also in the midst of a canal-to-pipe conversion project. The district, located northwest of Bend, is installing 3.5 miles of 48-inch diameter pipe this winter. The project will allow the district to conserve water for Tumalo Creek and Crescent Creek.

Swalley Irrigation District is currently working on a large pipeline replacement project in cooperation with the Oregon Department of Transportation North Corridor Project on the north end of Bend.

Jer Camarata, general manager for the district, said the pipeline replacement and relocation project is about 2,000 feet long as it crosses under U.S. Highway 97, running from where Instant Landscaping used to be towards the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office off Jameson Street.

“The new 30-inch pipeline is replacing an older 5-foot-wide pipeline to accommodate ODOT North Corridor Project transportation objectives whilst keeping us whole for our irrigation delivery obligations,” said Camarata.

Shon RaeCanals are shut, but districts remain busy with piping projects
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Center for Biological Diversity Files Formal 60-Day Notice of Intent to Sue

January 13, 2023

On January 12, 2023, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) sent a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), alleging that the two federal agencies are violating the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).  Among other things, the letter alleges that Reclamation is violating the ESA by continuing to operate the Deschutes River Basin Project, and that the Service is violating the ESA because it approved the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) and issued an incidental take permit under the ESA to the DBBC irrigation districts.  At its core, CBD’s allegation is that the Service and Reclamation are not doing enough to protect the Oregon spotted frog, a species that is listed as threatened under the ESA.  The letter serves to notify the Service and Reclamation that CBD intends to sue them under the citizen suit provisions of the ESA.

As required by the ESA, a party must provide 60 days’ notice before it may bring a citizen suit.  Thus, it appears the earliest that CBD will formally sue the agencies is March 14, 2023.  We would note that CBD has not indicated in its letter that it intends to sue the irrigation districts, and as such, when CBD does file suit, the Service and Reclamation will be the defendants.  Also, the letter does not allege that the districts are failing to implement the conservation measures included in the HCP or are otherwise failing to comply with the terms and conditions contained in the permit issued to them by the Service.  Rather, CBD is asserting that the terms and conditions in the permit should be even more stringent than what’s currently required.

The new CBD notice of intent to sue follows prior litigation brought in 2015 by CBD and WaterWatch of Oregon (WaterWatch) against the Service, Reclamation, and five of the irrigation districts.  In that litigation, CBD and WaterWatch moved for a preliminary injunction to significantly alter irrigation water storage and use in the basin.  The U.S. District Court of Oregon denied that motion.  The litigation ended in a settlement, pursuant to which the irrigation districts agreed to complete the HCP.  The HCP was completed and approved by the Service at the end of 2020, and the irrigation districts have been implementing the HCP and honoring their commitments since that time.

We will continue to monitor actions that may result from CBD’s notice.  In the meantime, the districts remain fully committed to following the terms and conditions contained in their incidental take permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under section 10 of the ESA.  Moreover, we intend to take necessary and appropriate actions to ensure that our permit remains valid and continues to provide the districts with the certainty they need to store and deliver irrigation water to their patrons.

The DBBC strongly believes that our communities should continue to work collaboratively and together from within rather than take direction from the outside, and we remain firmly committed to implementing the conservation measures outlined in the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan.

Shon RaeCenter for Biological Diversity Files Formal 60-Day Notice of Intent to Sue
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Central Oregon Irrigators Ask Counties to Declare Drought

March 3, 2022

On February 21, 2022, the Deschutes Basin Board of Control submitted drought declaration requests to commissioners representing Jefferson, Crook, and Deschutes counties. The letter also requests that Governor Kate Brown issue an executive order, declaring drought in the region.

The primary benefits of a state drought declaration from the Governor are that it creates greater awareness of drought conditions, facilitates coordination between state agencies, and allows the Water Resources Department to provide existing water right holders with access to emergency water management tools.

Despite recent precipitation and snowfall, Central Oregon’s snowpack and precipitation remain below average for the water year. As of March 1, the Upper Deschutes and Crooked River basins were 85% of median for precipitation and just 78% of median for snowpack (Snow Water Equivalent).

Reservoirs are also at or near record lows. Wickiup Reservoir, which stores water for the North Unit Irrigation District farmers located mainly around Culver and Madras, contained 96,373 acre-feet of water as of Tuesday, which is just 48% of capacity. The long-term climate forecast doesn’t anticipate a reversal of the historic drought, and National Weather Service predicts higher than average temperatures and below-average precipitation.

Drought, severe weather conditions, and the upcoming fire season pose significant threats to the tri-county region’s local economy, agriculture, livestock, natural resources, and recreation.

During these extenuating conditions, it may be necessary for the Oregon Water Resources Department and Deschutes Basin irrigation districts to appropriately manage and, in some instances, make changes to individual systems and flow rates at which deliveries are made to district patrons.

“The frequency and intensity of these drought events highlight the urgency to update antiquated irrigation infrastructure through water conservation projects,” said Craig Horrell, president of the Deschutes Basin Board of Control. “We are committed to piping open canals and improving on-farm efficiencies to increase water reliability and conserve water.”

The Deschutes Basin Board of Control comprises eight irrigation districts, including Arnold, Central Oregon, Lone Pine, North Unit, Ochoco, Swalley, Three Sisters, and Tumalo. Collectively they convey water to over 7,600 farms and ranches, as well as local cities, parks, and schools.

 

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