Permanent Water Rights Transfers

The purpose of the Transfers Program is to acquire and transfer water rights for dedication to permanent instream use. Instream transfers may be for restoration or mitigation purposes, serving to meet instream flow targets and the needs of farmers, cities and other new groundwater uses.

DRC has used grant funding to acquire over 565 acres of water rights for permanent instream transfer. In addition, the DRC has assisted in the instream transfer of an additional 1081 acres (for a total of 1,646 acres), most of which resulted in groundwater mitigation credits for local municipal water providers, such as the city of Bend and Avion Water Company. In total, these instream transfers have resulted in an additional 29.5 cubic feet per second (cfs), or 9,317 acre-feet of protected instream flow. An additional 41.5 cfs has been permanently protected instream by partners and others to create mitigation credits (cities, resorts, water consultants). In partnership with irrigation districts such as COID and NUID, the DRC continues to focus its water acquisition program on urbanizing water rights located on the fringes of Bend & Redmond – as opposed to other rights located in more rural areas.