Long Term Water Outlook? (Bend, Prineville: tax, living in, farmers)

[eqttrdr]

Been reading different blogs/websites and browsing government data that says the long term water availability outlook for Bend is bleak.

I find this hard to believe being that its so close to mountains, snow, lakes and rivers.

Been also reading that many people are complaining that all the wells are running dry.


Does anyone have any feelings on the long term outlook for water living in/around Bend or CO in general?


Thanks for your time

[kapetrich]

Can you link us to what you're reading?

[Steve Pickering]

Originally Posted by kapetrich

Can you link us to what you're reading?

You may not want to know, but I would be interested in the source also

[oregonwoodsmoke]

This is desert and the population is growing quickly.

Yes, there is going to be an issue of not enough water for everyone. There is only so much snow that falls and melts in this direction. Water pumped out of the ground has been removed. It is not an infinite resource that magically fills back to the top every night as the people sleep.

Tumalo Irrigation District which has nearly the original old water rights in Central Oregon still gets their water taken by the city of Bend, leaving the farmers short. The Tumalo farmers still pay for 100% oft their water and get delivered 50% of it.

The city of Bend keeps encouraging new breweries and giving enormous tax breaks to existing breweries to expand. The breweries use huge amounts of water, that the area doesn't really have available and the breweries use enormous amounts of the sewage processing system, which is already inadequate for the amount of usage.

Areas near Powell Butte have had their wells dry up. They are out at the edges of the water table and the water level has gotten low enough that they are no longer over water.

The city of Prineville has had an ongoing problem getting enough water because their water table has been inadequate for the population. Although I saw a bit in the news that Prineville has discovered a separate unrelated water table and solved their water issue, at least temporarily.

Central Oregon might have a lot of lakes, but they aren't very big and would be drained to nothing very quickly if the city dropped in a siphon hose and pumped the water out. Inlets to the lakes are small. There isn't an enormous amount of water going into the lakes. With most of those high cascade lakes, you can step over the water inlet to them.

[BendLocal]

Excellent summary of the water situation. This is a well known and often discussed issue in these parts.

[Hawk J]

Perhaps someone should arrange to have a pipeline built from Canada.?

[AK76]

It is not the desert population that stresses the water supply, it is the great majority of population which resides west of the Cascades, or Sierra Nevadas in the case of CA. For anyone to think that a desert could support a massive population, is not thinking clearly.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Incidentally, there is a lot of worry about the water supply west of the Cascades, too. Even with the amount of rainfall they receive, the population is growing so big that there is the possibility that the population will outgrow the water supply.

[kapetrich]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

You may not want to know, but I would be interested in the source also

Huh? I asked because I am interested.

I agree, water is and will continue to be a great and greater issue worldwide especially in the drier areas, but I don't know if anything said in this thread is very Bend specific.

I'm not saying anyone in here is wrong at all. I agree. Growing populations in historically dry areas lead to stressors on water supplies.

I guess what I'm asking is is the issue more on the side of an insufficient infrastructure or insufficient water supply? Or both?

I'm asking because from my minimal research it seems like the PNW in general is better off than just about everywhere on the West Coast/SW and dry portions of the inner-midwest.

Anyone have any good links? I'd love to learn more!

---

City of Bend's "A History of Surface Water Rights in Bend": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKJV-QPBCmk

[BendLocal]

Originally Posted by kapetrich

I guess what I'm asking is is the issue more on the side of an insufficient infrastructure or insufficient water supply? Or both?

Both. Keep googling and you should find what you are looking for.