Central Oregon Irrigation District’s (COID) latest watershed plan would pipe only 7.9 miles of the more than 400 miles of its canals and cost a whopping $568,000 per irrigator. The cost would be more than four times the price of conserved water generated by other similar piping projects in COID in recent years.

The biggest decision-point in our lifetimes for the future of the Deschutes River Basin was triggered last week when irrigation districts submitted a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Suffice to say, the plan put forth by the irrigation districts does not sufficiently address the scale of the River’s problem.

The time has come to put real collaborative and effective water conservation approaches to work. Otherwise, threatened fish and wildlife in the Deschutes basin will be blamed for our water woes when the solution to the problem has been in the hands of the irrigators all along.

Three factors combined to cause the Deschutes River’s low flow as it passes through the city: slight releases from Wickiup Reservoir, nearly half average flow from the Little Deschutes River and temporary irrigation diversions, or “stock runs.”