The Horizon
The latest updates on our work defending rural lands, creating livable cities and towns and preserving wild lands and water throughout Central Oregon
One Key Move Solves Many Water Challenges
In the final piece of our water waster series, we focus on one key move that could be achieved through legislative or administrative action to address wasteful water use practices and inequitable distribution in the Deschutes Basin. The amount of water that could be saved by this one move alone is astonishing.
A Future Without Water Waste
The Deschutes Basin is a dynamic watershed, an Indigenous homeland, a municipal water supply, a productive agricultural region, and the backbone of Central Oregon’s recreation economy. Unlike other basins across the West, the Deschutes Basin is fortunate to have enough water to reasonably meet all of these water users’ needs—if sensibly managed and allocated.
The Harms of Water Waste
Those who need water least often get the most, while the most productive farms in the region, municipalities, and river ecosystems struggle to get by with whatever water is left.
The Roots of Water Waste
An antiquated system for allocating Central Oregon’s surface water is colliding with 21st-century urbanization and county land use practices in ways that magnify waste and inequity.
Water Waste by Design
Across Central Oregon, irrigation districts deliver nearly twice the water local crops require; water is applied to weeds and lands not currently practicing agriculture; porous canals lose up to half the water diverted from the river.
It sounds like something has gone very wrong. But in many ways, Central Oregon’s water management system is actually designed to create waste.
Guest Column: Reforming Water Policy at the Local Level
Most of the Deschutes River Basin’s water is used for irrigation and waste happens at every step in the process. It is time for irrigation districts to step up and truly embrace reform at the local level.
Addressing water waste in Central Oregon
It’s clear there is an appetite amongst irrigators for solutions to wasteful irrigation practices, improved irrigation infrastructure, and policy reform to allow easier reallocation of water to those who need it the most.
Guest Column: Attack the Reservoir of Wasted Water
It is time to focus on solutions to water waste to ensure that both our frogs and our farmers get the water they need - and time is of the essence as climate change tightens its grip.
Water bank pilot project renewed for a second year
This past year, Central Oregon saw the launch of the Deschutes Water Bank Pilot Program. This program is an innovative, voluntary, and market-based solution to addressing water shortages in the Deschutes Basin.
Water waste runs rampant even during extreme drought
The ongoing drought remains at the forefront of our minds as summer draws to a close. Isn’t it time to work together to change our water policies and eliminate wasteful practices? We all stand to benefit.