I’ve been having an email chat with an out of the area reader planning an outing in the fall to the Crooked River and thought that others may get something out of it. Here’s a summary of that thread and my guess about flows this summer.

Flows from Prineville Reservoir into the Crooked River are determined by a number of forces, most notably Ochoco Irrigation District, North Unit Irrigation District, the City of Prineville, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan. The biggest factor during irrigation season are OID’s withdrawals.

OID determines their flows based on the amount of water stored in Prineville Reservoir, summer rains, and heat.  Their target irrigation season is April 15 through October 15.  Last year was a good stored water year and OID’s releases still ended early, on October 6.  Most likely this is due to a hot summer and little rain requiring them to use up their stored water. 

I would guess there’s a good chance that this year it could end earlier due to the drought and low water in Prineville Reservoir.  Once OID’s releases end there could easily be very low water conditions in the Crooked until the minimum 50 cfs flows required by the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation plan begin on November 1.  In 2022 flows were cut to 10 cfs when OID ended their season very early which had a significant impact on fish. (I have a series of posts on this, starting here. You can find them all by going to the Crooked River section of this blog.)

This year OID’s season will start April 20, although releases are already ramping up so that they can “prime” their canals.  You can check out OID’s website for more and get on their mailing list for updates.