Central Oregon LandWatch is proud to present its first foray into documentary filmmaking with Deep Water: Protecting the Natural Springs and Native Fish of the Deschutes Basin. The film, which was produced locally by Wahoo Films, is a seven-minute account of the threats posed to native fish in the Deschutes Basin as more and more groundwater is pumped for human consumption.

Deep Water: Protecting the Natural Springs and Native Fish of the Deschutes Basin from Central Oregon LandWatch on Vimeo.

The release of this film comes at a time when elements of the Deschutes Basin's unique groundwater mitigation program have been called into question, and amidst concern that the basin's groundwater may be more prone to depletion than previously believed.

Deep Water's specific emphasis is on impacts to the basin's natural springs and how reductions in spring flow resulting from future groundwater pumping will lead to elevated in-stream temperatures and a reduction in critically important cold water habitat for native fish.

We hope you enjoy this film and that it serves to advance the dialog on this important issue, moving us toward greater recognition of the threats to the natural springs and native fish of the Deschutes Basin, and the need for a long-term solution.

We'd also like to take this opportunity to present new research by Mark Yinger Associates (attached as a pdf below) that helps quantify the impacts future groundwater pumping poses to native fish habitat in the middle Deschutes River. What the research suggests is that significant increases in stream temperature will occur in reaches of the middle Deschutes that are particularly important for native fish such as steelhead, which have been the focus of intensive reintroduction efforts, as well as resident Bull trout, which depend on this reach of river for their very survival.

The research also evaluates the overall impact of returning 250 cubic feet per second of irrigation water to the river near Bend – which is a target set by the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife – on in-stream temperatures in the middle Deschutes.

While the effect of returning so much irrigation water to the river would be to substantially cool many miles of river between Bend and Steelhead Falls and improve habitat conditions for native fish there such as Redband trout, it would also lead to significant increases in temperature below Steelhead Falls. Because Steelhead Falls acts as a barrier to upstream fish passage, the benefits of improved habitat conditions upstream of the falls will not be available to the native fish species like Bull trout and steelhead that reside below the falls and which are the focus of more than $250 million in ongoing and planned conservation investments.

According to Yinger's analysis, the combination of reduced groundwater discharge as a result of projected future groundwater pumping through 2025, and the planned return of 250 cubic feet per second of irrigation water to the river below Bend, could lead to increases of up to 3 degrees Fahrenheit in places below Steelhead Falls.

This analysis raises a number of tough questions and serves to highlight the need for a more deliberate approach to conservation strategy. It's unlikely that anyone has intentionally prioritized Redband trout over Bull trout and steelhead, yet that's what the current approach to mitigation and conservation in the basin effectively does. Moreover, Redband trout are fairly adaptive and able to withstand a fairly wide range of temperature conditions, while Bull trout are not.

It's unlikely that anyone deliberately designed the mitigation program in a way that works at cross purposes to much of the $250 million in planned and ongoing investment in the basin's native fish, yet that's exactly what the current program does. While it's premature to say exactly how significant the impact will be, this again serves to highlight the need for better, more focused conservation strategy.

It's not enough to monitor changes as they occur, and address these problems later. We need to get out ahead of the problems associated with future groundwater pumping with good science and the setting of smart conservation strategy. Our recent research is admittedly just a small piece of the puzzle, but serves to highlight that much important work remains to be accomplished, and that the long-term survival of native fish in the Deschutes is far from assured.

Of particular concern is the projected growth in destination resorts in the upper Deschutes Basin. According to our projections, future water use by destination resorts has the potential to outpace projected future water demand by cities by roughly 50% through 2025 and could account for one-third of all additional groundwater pumped during that time period. This seems like a startlingly poor use of such a valuable resource, one with measurably negative impacts on native fish.

The re-evaluation of our basin's unique mitigation program, both its successes and its failures, is long overdue and much work remains to ensure that future impacts of additional groundwater pumping in the basin are addressed before they become irreversible problems. More work is required in order to ensure that the program's legacy is one of lasting environmental success.