Manager's Report

11 April. 2011

Irrigation season is set to begin any day now and summer seems a long ways away. We continue to receive precipitation and the weather is not providing much warmth to drive the soil temperature. The Deschutes River is flowing well above average for this time of year and that bodes well for all the irrigation districts and for hydro generation.

The town hall meetings were held last week with relatively light attendance, but those patrons that did attend had many good questions answered by staff or attending board members.  The agenda covered the 2011 budget in comparison to the past few years along with updates on the Juniper Ridge Hydro Project and the Habitat Conservation Plan and the steelhead reintroduction.  I encourage folks to let us know if you have any comments or questions about the District.  If not with attendance at the town hall meetings, then with emails, letters or phone calls. You can also talk directly with the Board at the beginning of the monthly board meetings in Open Forum. All monthly board meeting minutes and the Manager Report are posted on COID’s website – www.coid.org.

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is making progress on drafting the 10(j) rule for the Federal Register. The 10(j) rule will provide experimental/non-essential status to the reintroduced steelhead for some period of time, and enable the Basin to continue its restoration efforts without the threat of federal prosecution which should enable continued funding from restoration partners at the state and federal levels.

Congressman Greg Walden is in preparations for introduction of a bill in the US House of Representatives that would involve several items relating to the Crooked River, including a water supply of 5,100 acre feet for the City of Prineville out of the currently uncontracted for water behind Bowman Dam, assurances of security for existing contract holders for water including Ochoco ID, and a one-quarter mile downstream movement of the wild and scenic river boundary.  The DBBC along with Prineville, Ochoco and Crook County are actively participating in discussions for the bill with Congressman Walden in addition to discussions with the staffs of Senators Wyden and Merkley.

The Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) conducted a Working Group meeting on March 15th  laying out the schedule and priority of studies to be conducted in the coming year along with an update of completed work to date.  A full Stakeholder Group meeting was held on March 16th with over 20 different stakeholder interests present.

The Upper Deschutes Basin was selected by the US Departments of Energy and Interior for a basin scale hydroelectric assessment. This was the only basin in the western U.S. selected for this study and represents a considerable opportunity for additional funding and recognition for potential additional development of hydroelectric generation. The purpose of the study is to evaluate maximizing hydro development on the existing federal dams of Wickiup, Crane and Bowman along with the irrigation district canals while at the same time evaluating mitigating any potential environmental impacts.

Opportunities

  • BlackRock Consulting is nearly completed with the feasibility study of several hydro sites within COID under the Oregon Department of Energy Community Renewable Energy Feasibility Fund (CREFF) program grant.
  • COID, NUID, Swalley and ODFW received notice that the application to the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) for funding of the fish ladder design was approved and funded for $39,000 plus match from the applying partners. Funding should become available to begin the design work by mid-summer 2011.
  • Alaska Senator Murkowski and Senator Wyden co-sponored a bill in the US Senate that will streamline FERC licensing of hydroelectric facilities along with potential funding for projects. 
  • COID and BLM are proceeding with land appraisals and environmental inspections on the parcels included in the land swap authorized by Congress in the public lands bill passed this year in Badlands area east of Bend. 
  • FERC approved COID’s preliminary permit application for Cline Falls.  A competing permit application filed by KC Hydro Company was dismissed. This now begins up to a three year period to allow for development of an official application for a hydroelectric project.
  • COID filed for certification of  the Siphon Power Project (SPP) to the Low Impact Hydro Institute (LIHI) last fall and anticipate to have full certification by the end of April. This enables COID to have fully certified Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) within Oregon’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) for both SPP and Juniper Ridge hydroelectric production. The RECs have a market value that can be sold to utilities and other generators of carbon based energy in order for these entities to come into compliance with the RPS. 
    • California legislation continues to offer promise of COID to possibly sell RECs into the California market in 2011. COID will continue to maximize the value of its hydroelectric assets beyond just selling the electricity going forward as these markets develop.
  • The DBBC has been a member of a group of stakeholders formed to evaluate options for dealing with the building sedimentation in Mirror Pond located in Bend. A smaller group of these stakeholders including Bend Parks, City of Bend and PacifiCorp has hired a project manager to assist in the effort of developing a community based plan to develop options and gather funding for this Mirror Pond issue. This effort will take place during 2011 and likely beyond. The DBBC is active and regularly participates in these discussions.

Challenges

  • Pacific Rim Energy filed updates to FERC to address the deficiencies cited by FERC to the original application which included filings on COID’s canals. The filed updates did not include COID and the other Central Oregon irrigation districts. While not yet official, it now seems likely Pacific Rim will withdraw from the request within Central Oregon.
  • Issues continue to arise with patrons and the delivery of water to parcels past the District’s Point of Delivery.  The District is evaluating its existing statutory authorities and reviewing policies to assist in resolving these issues.
  • Persistence of patrons failing to beneficially use their water either due to economics, absentee ownership, or mismanagement resulting in potential confiscation by the District as the only viable option to prevent forfeiture.

STATUS REPORT

Juniper Ridge Piping & Hydroelectric Project

  • Successful hydro production through all four winter stock runs.
  • Only minor problems experienced to date with facility and have either been fully fixed or are in the process of repair. Facility remains under full warranty through 2011.

Real Estate

  • One 20 acre parcel near Deschutes Market Road and Hwy 97 was listed for sale through Steve Scott Realtors.  Listing, as per District policies, was at the recently updated appraised value.  No offers have been received to date.  The remaining 20 acre parcel was not listed.

Status – No Change

  • COID and the Redmond School District filed and received approval of a partition plat to the City of Redmond.  Traffic issues in Redmond are affecting the timing of the zoning change possibility and therefore any potential sale to an interested buyer.  

Status – Paused.  ODOT and the City of Bend have executed an agreement this past month that may facilitate movement of a similar agreement for Redmond. Legislation has been filed in Salem that may further produce positive effects for potential development.

Development 

  • COID, Arnold, Swalley and Tumalo will begin discussions with the City of Bend to implement the recently executed MOU and pursue an Inter-Governmental Agreement by the end of 2011.

Status – Ongoing. 

 

ON THE RADAR SCREEN

  • Federal legislation and regulation of renewable energy projects
  • Federal regulation of wetlands and jurisdiction of irrigation canals