Ochoco Irrigation District is poised to take ownership and local control of multiple properties and easements tied to construction of Bowman Dam in the 1950s.
“There was an act passed by Congress (in 2019) called the Dingell Act,” explained District Manager Bruce Scanlon. “It was put forth as an avenue for entities … that are under contract with the federal government for repayment of a project that had been undertaken. Once the entity has paid off the original obligation … then we could go through a process called title transfer to assume ownership of the elements of that project.”
The Crooked River Project, as it was named in 1956, was enacted by Congress and included the construction of Bowman Dam and associated canals, pump stations and other items.
“As that project was constructed, the U.S. government obtained certain properties and certain easements or rights-of-way that they hold,” Scanlon said. “Once the project was built, they transferred it to the irrigation district.” That transfer meant that the District would operate it, service it and take care of maintenance and repairs. The District would also pay for everything, but it would stay under the Bureau of Reclamation name.
“We can tell you what needs to be fixed or maintained or how to do things. And that is the way we have operated for over 50 years,” Scanlon said.
Then, in 2019, the District paid off its project debt, opening the door for them to take advantage of newly passed Dingell Act. The process was launched in 2020 and the District is one of, if not the first entities in Oregon to take advantage of the Dingell Act.
“One of the reasons that the District chose to undertake title transfer was so that OID would own in name those easements and that property and have local control over the project,” Scanlon said.
The transition to local control will enable the District to engage in locally funded projects without having to navigate an onerous process through the Bureau of Reclamation. One such project, piping open irrigation canal in partnership with a city of Prineville extension of Combs Flat Road, will break ground later this year.
“If we did not have title transfer, we would have to go through an extensive process with Bureau of Reclamation to vacate the current easements owned by the Bureau of Reclamation and to through a lengthy process of acquiring new easements,” Scanlon noted. “Now that we have ownership of those easements, we can, in a matter of minutes, undertake an agreement with the city of Prineville to make that happen. It saves the city and District time and money.”
But the transition is not without challenges. With local control, Scanlon acknowledges that the District will take on the responsibility of ensuring and securing the legitimacy of the easements and maintain a process moving forward for any actions that impact those easements. In addition, any projects that utilize federal funding will still have to go through the federal process. Scanlon also pointed out that the title transfer does not include Bowman Dam.
While enough of the title transfer has transpired to enable projects like the canal piping to move forward, Scanlon said the transition is not completely finished.
“We have basically put the ball in motion,” he said. “We have hit the top of the mountain and now it is all downhill from here, so to speak … There is nothing in the works that would prevent it from happening.”
There is also a second phase of the transition. The Bureau of Reclamation has a power agreement with PacifiCorp, and the District needs to work out some kinks before taking full ownership of the pump stations.
“It is going to take some additional time and some navigating and amending some agreements that we have with them,” Scanlon said.
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