A few days ago the Bulletin carried a story from the Capital Press titled “Irrigators sue over Prineville Reservoir water releases“. As I mentioned in this post last month, when the Crooked River Act was passed in December 2014 it stated that water in excess of irrigation needs be released for the maximum biological benefit of fish all the way to Lake Billy Chinook. Unfortunately, that water was not protected with an instream water right which allowed water right holders downstream from the City of Prineville to withdraw it. It took 9 years (!) but that water was finally protected last month. Crooked River irrigators upstream from Prineville Reservoir are now suing to overturn that water right. This is absurd, the right does not affect them, and is another great example of how entitled and combative some water rights holders are.

The argument on the part of the upstream irrigators is their rights may be impinged in order to meet the more junior instream water right downstream of Bowman Dam. This is simply not the case. Irrigators upstream from Prineville Reservoir can fill their rights based on their priority dates as always. Flows that make it into Prineville Reservoir are then held first for downstream irrigation. These downstream irrigators have “first fill” rights meaning that all of their rights are filled before any water can be allocated for fish and wildlife. Stored water in excess of downstream irrigation rights is released for the benefit of fish and is now protected below the reservoir, not above it.

If the upstream irrigators are concerned about their rights being reduced by storage in the reservoir or releases from it, they should first sue Ochoco Irrigation District, North Unit Irrigation District, and the City of Prineville, under the same misguided fear that meeting downstream rights could impinge on the upstream irrigator’s rights. The whole thing is nuts, but it illustrates the entitled thinking of so many irrigators about “their” water.

A similar story about extreme, irrational self interest can be found in “As Groundwater Dwindles, Powerful Players Block Change“, the latest in a fantastic series of articles on groundwater from the NY Times. This article discusses how agricultural, industrial, and real estate interests are working hard to continue large scale groundwater extraction even while they know it is unsustainable and water levels will soon drop to catastrophic levels.

Iceberg? What iceberg? Full speed ahead!