A few days ago Central Oregon Daily News ran a story on the “award winning” way the City of Prineville stores water by pumping it into an aquifer for later use. Aquifer recharge is a tool that is getting a lot more interest as our planet heats. Storing “excess” water in the ground for use later is conceptually a good idea. It is a lot less expensive and controversial than building new reservoirs. As usual, when it comes to water, however, the devil is in the details. I wrote about Prineville’s plan over a year ago and pointed out the serious ecological problems it creates for the Crooked River and the fish and wildlife that depend on it. Read the post for a longer discussion, but in summary, there is no excess water in the Crooked River. The aquifer being drawn down is naturally recharged in the winter when flows may be higher and the water is naturally released in the summer providing cool water when the river needs it. Pumping down that naturally recharged aquifer and moving the water to another “contained” aquifer for storage, water that is not released back into the river but is used by data centers, helps the Prineville economy and municipal water system but further degrades the Crooked River which has been on life support for many years.

The Wild & Scenic section of the Crooked River below Bowman Dam is prized by anglers from all over Oregon who target abundant wild, native mountain whitefish and redband trout. The Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife annually surveys fish populations in the river in June. Unsurprisingly, over the years ODFW has recorded a direct connection between river levels and fish health. Specifically, flows below 35 cfs have been shown to have strong negative impact on trout abundance.

The period from mid-September to November 1, 2022 witnessed an unprecedented reduction in flows in the Crooked to approximately 10 cfs. In response, ODFW conducted a survey in October to get a preliminary idea of the impact. We really won’t know what has happened until the survey next June, but it should not be surprising that the initial results do not look good.

You can read the entire draft report yourself*, but as predicted by ODFW, and obvious to anyone who has spent any time fishing the Crooked River, it has been dramatically impacted. I’ll get into the details below, but first there is a massive caveat that you must be aware of.

A reader asked me to look into what appears to be a very concerning rise in the Crooked River yesterday. Jeremy Giffin, our local water master, explained that this is a faulty reading as the recorder is being replaced this week and readings won’t be reliable for a while. The plan is to continue flows at around 50 cfs for many more months. Thanks to the reader who alerted me and to Jeremy for promptly responding to my inquiry.

Flows out of Bowman Dam into the Crooked River have been raised to almost 50 cfs, the target until irrigation season begins next April. Unfortunately, they were raised abruptly. I was not there to watch but am certain this caused a significant amount of sediment to be moved, which only adds to the suffering of fish and wildlife that depend on the river. We won’t know the status of the fish until ODFW’s annual fish sampling next spring, but let’s hope for the best. (Note that the flows were around 10 cfs until a little over a week ago when they were raised to about 23 cfs.)

Brooke Snavely of Central Oregon Daily News interviewed me today on the banks of the Crooked River. I don’t know how long the story will be archived on their site, but below is the accompanying text. It’s always a strange experience to see myself on video and to try to understand the thought process behind a fair amount of talking on camera getting edited down to a few seconds. But, Brooke did a fine job of squeezing a lot into a 2 minute story.

It’s almost time for a funeral for the Wild & Scenic section of the Crooked River. It took a few days, but yesterday evening Ochoco Irrigation District and the Bureau of Reclamation reduced the river below Prineville Reservoir 12 cfs. Today I went to pay my respects and take some photos. It is so sad. Don’t forget, the river below the City of Prineville has been in even worse shape, running at 1 to 2 cfs for weeks*, at a time when over 80 spring chinook have been attempting to move up to spawning grounds. Today I left my office in Bend early and drove to the Prineville Reservoir and then down to the bottom of the Wild & Scenic section. Below are photos, videos, and some commentary.

As you probably already know, Ochoco Irrigation District and the Bureau of Reclamation began reducing flows in the Crooked River two days ago. I guess we can be thankful that they did not immediately drop it all the way to 10 cfs so that fish and other aquatic life can try to find deeper pools, but in the long run it will not matter. The river is going too low. Today the Bend Bulletin ran a story on the declining flows that was a little premature in my mind, I am waiting until the flows are fully reduced before heading out to see the damage and take photos. The story contained the normal platitudes from local officials expressing how terrible it is they had to take this drastic action due to factors beyond their control. The typical drivel, once again unchallenged in the article. One comment was particularly misleading, however.

Yesterday I spoke with Bridget Moran of the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the agency that worked with local irrigation districts and the City of Prineville on the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan. Due to the cooler and wetter than anticipated spring, Ochoco Irrigation District was able to move their irrigation shut off date from August 15 to September 15. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the plan is now to keep flows at 10 cfs from shut off until November 1, not October 15.

Yesterday morning a client called asking about the “old, scruffy” guy on TV talking about fish the day before. Well, about 3 weeks ago I was interviewed by Central Oregon Daily about the plans to reduce the Crooked River to 10 cfs and realized they must have finally run the segment. At the time of the interview Ochoco Irrigation District and the Bureau of Reclamation were planning to reduce flows around August 15, now they are targeting September 1. Otherwise, I think the interview remains factual. The flows will be reduced until October 15 when the Habitat Conservation Plan requires flows of 50 cfs through the winter. I know of a couple of attempts help alleviate this disaster but at best they are unlikely to succeed.

I would have made this post last night but I was presenting to the local chapter of Project Healing Waters about local water issues. I continue to be pleasantly surprised by people wanting to learn about how water is controlled in Central Oregon and their concern with its mismanagement once they get the facts.

It took three weeks from the time I first alerted the Bend Bulletin on the disaster that is going to happen on the Crooked later this summer, but I am thankful that they did finally run a story. Unfortunately, they did not go into much detail on just how devastating it will be for fish and wildlife. The quote from ODFW, “at this point, the scope of the impacts are unknown and difficult to predict”, is unfathomable. We know what is going to happen and it will be ugly. It seems all the people involved are simply going to watch it happen.

I have heard that folks have been reaching out to the Bureau of Reclamation and elsewhere on the planned reduction of flows in August to 10 cfs in the Crooked River. While the BoR has been unresponsive, public awareness and pressure is a good thing. Keep contacting them and spreading the word! For those of you interested in digging into the details of how this can be allowed to happen, keep reading.

Brett Hodgson retired from ODFW last year after spending decades as a fish biologist in Prineville and Bend. In my experience, he the most knowledgeable source of information on local fisheries issues and stays active as a volunteer with ODFW. I called him yesterday to get his take on the plans to reduce flows in the Crooked River to 10 cfs next month. It was an interesting conversation, keep reading for more.

Every month a group of local, state, and federal government agencies, Ochoco Irrigation District, the Confederate Tribes of Warm Springs, and others meet to discuss water releases out of Prineville Reservoir into the Crooked River. The minutes of that meeting are distributed to a wider audience, including yours truly. The June 1 minutes were released a few days ago and I had the chance to read them today. If you care about the Crooked River you should be extremely concerned. I encourage you keep reading and to contact Gregg Garnett, the Bend Field Office Manager of the Bureau of Reclamation at ggarnett@usbr.gov or (541) 389-6541 x226.

Last week was a typical example of how the Crooked River is managed by the Bureau of Reclamation and local irrigation districts with no concern for fish and wildlife. In only 45 minutes on April 26th, releases from Bowman Dam into the Crooked River rose from 144 cfs to 240 cfs. This started at 5:45 am and ended at 6:30 am. I hope no anglers or wildlife were wading in the river early that morning. Of course, a sudden surge of this magnitude will have stirred up considerable spawning bed clogging sediment.

The Bureau of Reclamation has launched a new website tracking Prineville Reservoir water management. For those of you like me who like to dive into the weeds, it’s worth a quick look. The primary content is the letter to “Prineville Reservoir Storage Contractors”. It states that at 27% full, Prineville Reservoir has never been this low at this time of year, is not likely to fill more, and will likely be empty by the end of irrigation season. Most water right holders (“storage contractors”) will receive at most 49% of their water allocations. The big users will receive even less. Ochoco Irrigation District will receive 42% of their water right and North Unit only 27%. This is bad news for irrigators but fishing in the Wild & Scenic section this summer should be fine. The big unanswered question is where will the water for the 50 cfs of winter releases required by the Habitat Conservation Plan come from? Without adequate winter release and a huge snowfall next winter the Crooked River will be in very bad shape. At what point do the needs of fish and wildlife come into consideration?

Like many of you, I have been watching the Bureau of Reclamation graph for Prineville Reservoir and the Crooked River. I also receive notes from the monthly planning meetings that occur between the Ochoco Irrigation District and various agencies. I have been waiting to write about this, but a reader asked about it today and irrigation season starts soon, so here’s what I know and what I anticipate will occur.

Yesterday, the Bulletin published my column on Facebook’s use of water in Prineville and its impact on the Crooked River.  Another part of the Bulletin article to which I was responding briefly mentioned the Ingram Meadow Restoration Project in the Ochoco Mountains stating it was a Facebook project that is benefitting our local environment.  Clearly, restoring natural habitat is a worthy endeavor to be supported.  It is not at all clear, however, what role Facebook played in this US Forest Service project or how it helps offset their significant use of water many miles downstream.  If Facebook, or Apple, really want to provide benefit that directly offsets the impact of their data centers on the Crooked River there is a restoration project in their backyard they should fund.

Update: I have been told that Facebook donated $30K to the National Forest Foundation which was then forwarded to the USFS for the Ingram Meadow Project. The total spent on “Meadow and Riparian Enhancement” was $150K.

I have been a member of Central Oregon Flyfishers since 2004. Like so much else in Central Oregon, COF has grown considerably since then, mostly with new members from out of the area. At last month’s COF meeting a question was asked about fishing the Crooked River in the winter during low flows which made me think it was time for another overview of how Bowman Dam and the Crooked River are managed.  Here’s a quick recap.

A reader recently contacted me concerned about low flows in the Crooked River.  As I have written about in the past, Prineville Reservoir is currently being managed by Ochoco Irrigation District and the US Fish & Wildlife Service to release 50 CFS during the winter (non-irrigation season).  In my opinion, this is in violation of the 2014 Crooked River Act.  At the beginning of the irrigation season there was more than enough water in the “fish bucket” to meet the Act’s 80 CFS target over the winter. Worse, they are not even releasing 50 CFS as the river has been at 47 CFS for some time now.  3 CFS might not seem like much, but OID is currently asking to spend tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to add 4.8 CFS. Once again, fish, wildlife, and taxpayers are losing.

After almost four hours of testimony and discussion, the ODFW Commission denied the request by Ochoco Irrigation District, the City of Prineville, and Crook County to provide a waiver for fish passage! Get more background information here. I certainly hope that the applicants follow the advice of the Commission and come back with an improved application. Clearly, adding a hydro facility to Bowman Dam has real benefit, but there needs to be real benefit to fish as well.

As I wrote about here and here, Ochoco Irrigation District, the City of Prineville, and Crook County would like to add a hydroelectric facility to Bowman Dam (Prineville Reservoir) without providing fish passage. This would violate the law so they are asking the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife for a waiver. The ODFW Commission will make their ruling this Friday. You can find the meeting agenda here, and sign up to testify (via Zoom) here. Public testimony at prior hearings has been overwhelming against providing a fish passage waiver but the applicants will make their best case for it on Friday so a strong showing by conservationists and fish advocates is essential. Lend your voice to fish, it’s not painful at all.

At the end of 2014, the Crooked River Collaborative Water Security and Jobs Act was passed.  Commonly known as the “Crooked River Act”, I was a minor participant in the negotiation of this controversial legislation.  Many people whom I respect continue to believe that the Crooked River Act was a giveaway to irrigators and a loss for fish and wildlife.  I disagree with them, but the way in which the bill is being implemented does not meet the spirit in which it was negotiated.  Read on for an overview of the bill, how it is working, how it is not, and why this is an even more important topic given the impending release of the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan.

All public comments pertaining to the requested fish passage waiver are part of the public record. I requested a copy of them, which you can see here. There is some grey area as a few were not perfectly clear, but by my count there were 171 letters in opposition to the waiver and 12 in favor. (In other words, the overwhelming majority asked that fish passage be provided.) I thought the letters made for interesting reading and recognized many of the writers. The final decision is scheduled to be made in September.

While the winter has started out somewhat dry in Central Oregon, things look good for the Crooked River this winter.  Prineville Reservoir was not drawn down to very low levels over the summer and is currently 57% full.  The majority of that is “fish water”, meaning it is not earmarked for irrigation use, and can be released for fish and wildlife.  93 cfs is currently being let out into the Crooked, which provides reasonable habitat for fish, and this amount should be maintained throughout the winter.  Some fish water may even be left over.  Of course, higher flows will likely occur if the reservoir completely fills over the winter.  So, right now it looks like next spring and summer could be good for fishing on the Crooked.

Three federal agencies (Bureau of Reclamation, National Marine Fisheries Service, and US Fish & Wildlife) manage water releases out of Prineville Reservoir into the Crooked River.  As of last week, they believe flows for fish and wildlife can be maintained through the winter.  Prineville Reservoir has a capacity of 148,640 acre feet of water, approximately half of which is guaranteed for irrigation. Water in excess of that at the beginning of irrigation season is “fish water” to be released for the “maximum biological benefit” for fish and wildlife.  Irrigation season ends in a month and Prineville Reservoir is still 66% full, leaving plenty of fish water to release during the winter.  Keep reading for more details.Read More »

Well, that’s an acronym filled title.  Here are Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife’s comments on Ochoco Irrigation District’s Pre-Application Document to build a hydro electric facility on Bowman Dam.  It’s 37 pages and filled with questions about how the facility and it’s transmissions lines will impact fish and wildlife on the Crooked River.  Some are pretty basic, like how will flows be ramped up and down so as to not negatively impact fish?  Even a cursory reading shows that it is far too early in the process to give a blanket endorsement to this project, even if you agree (like I do) that the idea seems to have merit.Read More »

Today the US Bureau of Reclamation is increasing flows out of Prineville Reservoir into the Crooked River from 93 to 250 cfs and to 500 cfs tomorrow. Flows will likely be raised higher in the coming days and stay that way for some time. There is a large snowpack in the Ochoco Mountains and it is raining. Flows into the reservoir are now at 2,500 cfs and the BOR is switching to flood control mode.