Bend Bulletin: Editorial: Water bank is just what Deschutes Basin needs
Oregon’s system of water rights was established when the thirst was to unlock the potential of the state. Now the urgent matter is to make better use of the water we have.
It needs to be simpler to move water around to where it is needed. Water, you could say, needs to be more fluid.
Three Central Oregon legislators, state Reps. Emerson Levy, Jason Kropf and state Sen. Anthony Broadman, all Bend Democrats, are pushing a bill, House Bill 3806, that would create a water bank in the Deschutes Basin.
“We are trying to make it easier to move water around using incentives in a voluntary way,” Kate Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Deschutes River Conservancy, told a legislative committee on Wednesday.
The idea is to enable more water transfers between water right holders. We emphasize, again, it would be voluntary. Nobody would be seizing water from anybody else. Water also would be kept out of the hands of speculators. There are requirements for reporting on how well the water bank works. The hope is the program will prove itself and be allowed to continue. The concept could be adopted in other places across the state.
Support for the bill seems strong. There is no apparent opposition. Central Oregon LandWatch testified in favor of the bill on Wednesday, as did the city of Bend. The Jefferson County Commission also submitted testimony in support. There was no testimony against it.
The bill is particularly critical for North Unit Irrigation District, which serves many farmers around Madras. It is the second largest irrigation district in the state, providing water to irrigate about 60,000 acres. About 50% of the world’s hybrid carrot seed is produced by the farmers of North Unit.
The challenge is — North Unit is the junior water rights holder in the basin. Other irrigation districts go first. Drought and other commitments for water in the basin can translate into frequent water shortages for North Unit.
Drought tests the limits of the rigid water rights system. It adds inflexibility on top of inflexibility.
“The 22-year period from 2000 to 2021” was “the driest period on record for Oregon in the past 1,200 years,” the Oregon Water Resources Department warned in 2021. “For context, the drought that caused the Dust Bowl of the 1930s lasted for less than a decade.”
This has been a wet winter with good snowpack. Snow-water equivalent across the state was 114% above the historical median as of March 10. The Upper Deschutes was just a bit more on March 13. That’s encouraging for this year. What will next year bring?
The water bank, Josh Bailey, general manager of North Unit testified, creates another tool for North Unit to meet its water needs in good and bad years with voluntary, market-based transactions.
There’s nothing new about the concept of a water bank. What was called the Central Oregon Water Bank made a deal in 2006 to help the city of Bend satisfy water needs. But there have been some stops and starts.
This bill would create a new pilot program with lots of guardrails to protect it from going astray, lots of reporting to monitor it and lots of potential to better satisfy water needs with scarce supply. It doesn’t solve all the water issues in the Deschutes Basin. It should help.
