Earliest-ever water shutoff at Wickiup Reservoir leaves open question: What of next year?
'We're in new territory,' dam tender says
La PINE,, Ore. (KTVZ) -- An outflow tube that carries water from the Wickiup Reservoir into the Deschutes River was turned off Friday afternoon, the latest troubling milestone of a very dry year and trouble for farmers and ranchers who depend on irrigation water for their livelihoods.
Curtis Wood, the dam tender, said there is no need to keep the second outflow tube open: The stored water is gone.
This is the third time in four years the water stored at the reservoir has run out, but the earliest on record.
“We’re in new territory. It’s never been done before, shutting off this early,” Wood said.
Any water still visible at the reservoir is considered "live flow," meaning its flowing in from the nearby natural resources but won’t be stored.
Wood said reducing the water outflow from the reservoir can help conserve the limited water that is available to North Unit Irrigation District customers, for a later time.
“This will help start building up some more (water) for farm and water users come October," Woods said.
But it’s not guaranteed that water will be released this year.
“The question was brought, if we’re going to turn it back on, and that all depends on the water orders that will come in October. if not, it’ll shut off for the season,” Woods said.
A low level of stored water is being kept at the bottom of the reservoir to prevent the Deschutes River from forming silt, which happened last year.
“It ends up in Bend, at a murky color, as it did last year. So we stopped it before it went far down the elevation,” Woods said.
The shutoff of the outflow tube will further impact farmers with the North Unit Irrigation District, after they started the irrigation season with a half-full supply. The district plans to shut off and lock its pipelines Monday, for a temporary shutdown expected to last until early October.
And Wickiup is not alone, after a warm and dry winter. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's well-known "teacup diagram" of storage in the the Deschutes River Basin shows several low reservoirs, including Ochoco, Clear Lake and Crescent Lake.
