Planning For More Than Piping
When it comes to solving water shortages, fixing the systemic issues takes a multi-tool approach
LandWatch continues to advocate for water managers to adopt a comprehensive suite of tools to address water shortfalls for the river and productive farms. (Photo: Arian Stevens)
Whether you’re a farmer, a fish or a frog, your life depends on water. We all depend on water.
Unfortunately, an antiquated water system, rampant water waste, and archaic infrastructure have created a situation where there is not enough water to meet demand in the Deschutes Basin.
To address these issues, the Deschutes Basin Water Collaborative is working to provide a shared vision and implementation guidance for water allocation in the Upper Deschutes River Basin.
In 2024, the collaborative is developing a Water Management Plan through the state’s Place-Based Planning process. This voluntary process aims to meet both the “instream” needs of the Deschutes River and its tributaries, and “out of stream” needs, including both municipal and agricultural needs.
Moving Beyond Piping
Water conservation efforts in the Deschutes Basin have, up to now, focused on piping the large, irrigation district-owned canals that convey water from the Deschutes River to irrigators across Central Oregon.
Piping large irrigation canals is important, but we need a Water Management Plan that does much more than that.
The 2019 Upper Deschutes River Basin Study identified two primary tools as having the greatest potential for improving water supplies:
Water conservation projects (e.g. piping projects, and on-farm infrastructure upgrades)
Market-based incentives (e.g. water leasing, transfers, and duty reduction).
Both management options have the potential to conserve similar amounts of water, and we must implement them together if we are to successfully address projected annual water shortages. (1)
However, market-based incentives are a less expensive option for improving water supplies in the Deschutes Basin, can more quickly and equitably distribute water to meet the needs of our farmers and rivers during times of scarcity, and are voluntary, not compulsory.
Irrigation patron interviews conducted by economists as part of the 2019 Basin Study indicated a great willingness on the part of those patrons to participate in voluntary market-based incentive programs. (2)
Summary of water management options and the estimated potential conservation opportunity and cost. (3)
Piping alone will fail to conserve enough water to meet the urgent needs of productive farms and the river, including the winter flows required to be released from Wickiup Reservoir in 2028 under the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan. If we don’t scale efforts to improve water supplies, farmers in the northern part of the basin will be on the hook for providing these winter flows.
Solutions to help the river and productive farms
Irrigated Deschutes County farmland.
The most effective strategies for addressing water shortfalls rely on a combination of infrastructure improvements (such as piping large canals, and the smaller ones that deliver water to private properties), and a wide array of market-based incentives (such as water banking and volume-based pricing for water users).
The best outcome for the Upper Deschutes Basin will be a Water Management Plan that integrates these tools in a strategic manner, allowing for implementation at scale and a better understanding of the synergies among these approaches and the benefits to agriculture, municipalities, and our rivers and creeks.
The Middle Deschutes River below Broken Top and the Three Sisters. (Photo: Ryder Redfield)
The opportunity ahead
It will take more than just a good Water Management Plan to employ these solutions to meet Basin needs. We’ll also need to ensure that policy and funding barriers don’t prevent us from implementing both market-based incentives and piping private laterals. Addressing policy challenges, securing necessary funding, and garnering the support of local water managers will require a concerted effort from municipal leaders, irrigators, Tribal leaders, river advocates and other people interested in water issues in the Basin.
Looking ahead to the 2025 Oregon State legislative session, LandWatch sees an opportunity to explore policy and funding solutions that can remove barriers and allow the Basin to more quickly move water to where it’s needed most — our rivers, creeks, and productive farms.
The best time to implement the full suite of water management tools in the Deschutes Basin was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.
Further Reading:
Oregon's 2012 Integrated Water Resources Strategy (IWRS) recommended that the Oregon Water Resource Department help places around the state undertake a collaborative, integrated approach to water planning.
Bureau of Reclamation. 2019. Upper Deschutes River Basin Study. Prepared in partnership with Oregon Water Resource Department and Basin Study Work Group.
Summit Conservation Strategies. 2017. Technical Memorandum: LPE Task 7, Market-Based Approaches as a Water Supply Alternative. Prepared for DBBC, Basin Study Work Group. May 2017. Bend, Oregon.
Bureau of Reclamation. 2019. Upper Deschutes River Basin Study. Prepared in partnership with Oregon Water Resource Department and Basin Study Work Group.