Bend Bulletin - Deschutes Basin water is focus of U.S. House hearing in Redmond
Empty reservoirs, dry hayfields, low streamflow and dwindling groundwater supplies have impacted people across Central Oregon over the past five years.
On Tuesday, five members of the U.S. House of Representatives, alongside local officials, were in Redmond to listen to those impacted by the shortages and take their concerns back to colleagues in Washington D.C.
The event, chaired by Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ore., was billed as a field hearing for the House Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries. Bentz chairs the subcommittee, which is part of the House Natural Resources Committee.
Fourteen such field hearings have been held during the current session of Congress, including sessions in Guam, Yosemite National Park, Arizona, Minnesota and Texas.
Other U.S. Representatives attending the event included Oregon’s Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Happy Valley, and Val Hoyle, D-Springfield, along with Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., and Celeste Maloy, R-Utah.
A consistent theme of the two-hour meeting at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center was collaboration and the efforts made by various stakeholders in Central Oregon to work together to hammer out solutions related to water, instead of litigating in the courts.
A centerpiece of their dialogue was the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan, devised by eight irrigation districts and the City of Prineville and approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to improve conditions for the threatened Oregon spotted frog.
Differing views
The congressional delegates praised the conservation plan as a model for collaboration, noting that many basins in other parts of the West have failed to come to a consensus on how to allocate water.
But the delegates also heard criticism of the plan.
Trish Kentner Backsen, a North Unit Irrigation District farmer in Jefferson County, offered testimony that U.S. Fish and Wildlife efforts to improve conditions for the frog “are flawed.” More resources are needed to eliminate bullfrogs, which prey on the spotted frogs, she said.
Estuaries could be created for spotted frog habitat on private lands in the Upper Deschutes, she added.
“There is enough water for everyone. When you take one species (spotted frogs) and throw everything at one species, you are screwing up all the rest of them. There has to be balance,” Kentner Backen said.
Craig Horrell, general manager of Central Oregon Irrigation District, said his takeaway from the field hearing was that people are concerned that the conservation plan is not moving fast enough and steps need to be taken to speed up the process of piping this area’s leaky canals, which is central to water conservation.
“There was a lot of emotion that was not science-based,” said Horrell. “We do have a good partnership as districts with U.S. Fish and Wildlife. When you hear those, they are more frustrations out of fear and they are not fact-based.”
Endangered farmers
Witness testimony also came from Jeff Larkin, a Redmond area rancher who spoke of challenges on multiple fronts, with limited water a big component but wildfire also a threat. He said many farmers are facing these threats alone and rarely rely on the government for assistance.
“We are an endangered species,” said Larkin, referring to farmers and ranchers. “Wildfires are burning up our grazing lands. They are burning up our pastures. We don’t see relief. Those who make their living off the land are feeling alone a lot of the time.”
Panel speaker Bobby Brunoe, secretary-treasurer/CEO of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, also offered testimony on water resources, stating that the tribes are committed to working collaboratively with other parties in the basin, including riparian restoration work along the Deschutes River.
Brunoe says it’s critical to remember that the tribes have been using water longer than anyone in the Deschutes Basin and water is used as part of tribal religious practices. He said the Tribes are committed to improving water supplies for fish health in the Deschutes Basin.
“The number one gift the creator gave to us was water,” said Brunoe. “In our religious practice, water is consumed to unify all of our first foods.”
The tribes have endured years of water delivery problems related to out-of-date infrastructure on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Brunoe said a new water treatment plant will cost around $24 to $30 million and planning for the project is on pace for completion before the end of the decade.
River floaters targeted
The meeting concluded with Bentz showing a photo of inner tube floaters on the Deschutes River, the image placed on a large television monitor in front of the seated crowd, numbering around 150.
Bentz asked Deschutes County Commissioner Tony DeBone, one of the five people providing witness testimony, if people recreating on the river are paying for the water to compensate farmers.
Bentz suggested that water in the Deschutes River used for recreational purposes has value for others.
“The idea there was to show that farmers and ranchers gave up that water. It’s now in the stream. Now all kinds of other people are using it,” said Bentz.
“The question becomes, are they paying for that water they use? And what happened to the poor farmers and ranchers who gave up that water that they thought they were going to get when their predecessors homesteaded that land?”
DeBone responded that the water diversions for agriculture occur downstream from the Old Mill District in Bend, where most of the floating occurs.
“The amenities are natural here and people use it all the time,” said DeBone. “Diversions are happening north of that. It is a high flow area and then the diversions for the irrigation districts are after that. It’s an interesting topic.”
Bentz did not indicate how river users might pay for river floating.
Chavez-DeRemer concluded that problems between stakeholders in the Deschutes Basin should continue to be worked out in a collaborative, bi-partisan manner.
“If we can bring a committee from Congress, bi-partisan, recognize that there needs to be a balanced approach, we have hope,” she said. “Everyone agreed in there that we have more work to do. We have our marching orders to go back to Washinton D.C. to do some action items.”
