BEND, Ore. — Waterfront neighborhoods and water-dependent livelihoods are at an impasse this summer as a rising Deschutes River floods riverside properties and attracts thousands of mosquitoes to residential areas on its way to providing farmers’ crops with water downstream.
“I understand the farmers need the water, but if the water’s in my yard then it’s not getting to them,” said Catherine Brooks, who lives north of La Pine State Park in a subdivision called Oregon Water Wonderland 2, where water more than 8 inches deep has collected around people’s houses over the last month. “Flooding people’s property isn’t benefiting anyone.”
The Deschutes River, fed by the Wickiup Reservoir, brings irrigation water in dry summertime months to more than 100,000 acres of farmland in Deschutes and Jefferson counties. Depending on how much irrigation districts request from the Oregon Department of Water Resources, the water can flow at speeds of up to nearly 2,000 cubic feet per second, right past housing communities built near its banks.
The setup satisfies everyone, until it doesn’t. In 2012, the property of residents in the Oregon Water Wonderland 2 subdivision flooded, but then the issue faded until now, residents said.
“It was bad (in 2012), but this is probably as high as we’ve ever seen it,” Brooks said.
Kyle Gorman, south central region manager for the Oregon Water Resources Department, said the reason for the flooding lies in the weeds.
This summer, like in 2012, Gorman said there’s more vegetation growth — weeds — in the river and in its canals. Also, an especially hot summer like this one causes irrigation districts to request that more water be released from the reservoir. The increased vegetation displaces the additional water, and those two factors add up to water levels that are higher than usual.
“This past week there’s been a stretch of fairly high temperatures, so the irrigation demands are strong right now, which requires high discharge,” Gorman said Thursday. “It’s a combination of the irrigation demand with lots of weed growth.”
Water flows from the reservoir this week have fluctuated, according to the Oregon Water Resources Department website, but the average rate clocks in at 1,640 cubic feet per second — the highest it’s been all summer. It’s the same average daily flow as this week last year, but Gorman noted there weren’t any complaints of flooding then.
“Why weed growth one year is worse than others we have no idea,” he said. “It was bad in 2012, and it wasn’t bad for three years, and then it popped up again this year.”
There are 26 communities built along the Upper Deschutes River, according to the Upper Deschutes River Coalition, and as far as flooding goes, they’re affected by the rising water to different degrees. For instance, in the River Meadows subdivision, southwest of Oregon Water Wonderland 2, the water sometimes covers the neighborhood’s bike path — not too much of a problem, resident Terry Vermillion said.
But on the other end of the spectrum there are the 30 homes on Wood Duck Court, part of the subdivision where Brooks lives. The neighborhood is built on an island, with the Deschutes River on the west and smaller canals surrounding it elsewhere. Gorman said these canals are particularly prone to weed growth, which means some houses are getting the water from all sides.
Donna Pensinger said the water’s been encroaching on her property for the last two weeks or so. Now there’s standing water in her yard, which she’s tried to deal with by building a bridge of palettes to her shed. And other residents are experiencing worse than Pensinger, whose house is built on a hill. Tom Jones said he can’t even step off his back porch.
“I have water in my backyard all the way up to my patio — about 8 inches deep,” he said. “I have a nicely manicured backyard, and it’s completely covered.”
Worse than the flooding are the mosquitoes, residents say. The standing water in people’s yards creates a breeding ground for the insects, which terrorize anyone who steps outside.
“The mosquitoes are the worst part,” Chris Johns, another resident, said. “You start worrying about the whole Zika thing. It’s not OK by any means, I have a kid to take care of.”
Chad Stubblefield, a manager at Four Rivers Vectors Mosquito Control, which provides mosquito control to parts of southern Deschutes County, said that when the river rises because of a reservoir release, he can count on the mosquitoes getting really bad. Mosquitoes lay their eggs above the waterline, he said, and they’ll hatch when water levels rise. When the water rises higher than usual eggs that have been dormant on dry ground for years will hatch.
“We had a major mosquito hatch as a result of the high water this summer,” Stubblefield said. “The folks who live up and down the Upper Deschutes, those folks get it bad. I was out on Big River Drive and I recorded 100 mosquitoes land on me in one minute.”
Stubblefield said the threshold for taking action against mosquitoes is three landings in one minute.
All of this has caused some tension among neighborhood residents about how the water is released to the irrigation districts downstream.
“How do a couple dozen farmers get priority over the river and the health of the ecosystem?” James Mitchell, who lives on Wood Duck Court, said. “That’s what really bugs us. I understand the farmers have the water rights, which overrule everything, but they don’t own the river. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Everybody here agrees that there’s problems with the process,” Pensinger said. “This flooding is not OK, and the river’s got issues. It’s not just our area, either. And the solution is hurry up and wait — I don’t know how we’re going to solve it.”
“I don’t understand why there can’t be more cooperation between farmers and people who live on the rivers,” Brooks said.
Shon Rae, communications manager for Central Oregon Irrigation District, agreed that flooding isn’t good, but solutions are hard to come by. She said that relief would most likely be found in conservation efforts that help reduce drastic flows.
“That’ll help everyone on both ends,” she said.
