TSID Grows Up
In the late 1980s and early 1990s Three Sisters Irrigation District awoke to the reality that life was changing. After suffering the drought of 1977 abd the mulitple drought years in the early 1990s, TSID's farmers realized that conservation could be the key to avoiding future conflict as well as delivering more water to its farms.
The FERC relicensing of the Round Butte-Pelton dam complex in the Deschutes basin came with a new set of challenges and opportunities. For over 100 years TSID had dried up Whychus Creek going through Sisters in the late summer months. No one contemplated that the Courtswould list the Round Butte hatchery strain of Summer Steelhead. While the relicensing was being negotiated, the irrigation community did not consider the reintroduction of anadromous non-listed salmon and steelhead to be a problem. But it didn't take long for that to change.
Now the steelhead being placed in Whychus Creek and the Deschutes and Crooked Rivers are protected under the Endangered Species Act. This changes the landscape and the rules. TSID's Board of Directors and farmers embarked on an ambitious conservation effort starting in the late 1990s. The district's delivery system of open canals lost upwards of 50% of the diverted flow to seepage and evapotranspiration.
Starting in 1998, in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the TSID farmers, the District set about piping 11 private laterals, the Cloverdale ditch, the McKenzie Canyon Black Butte and Association ditches and the Main Canal from diversion to Watson Reservoir. As of 2011, 34 miles of the 60 miles of canals and ditches have been piped. These projects have resulted in over 20 cfs of permanently protected in-stream flow to Whychus Creek. TSID farmers now receive up to 25% more water on their farms during short water periods. Operations, maintenance and safety have all been improved and costs have been reduced.