Bend and Warm Springs leaders outline joint work on Deschutes Basin water rights, mitigation and updated science

Bend City Council and Warm Springs Tribal Council members met in a joint session to review progress on collaborative work addressing water-right transfers, the Deschutes Basin Groundwater Mitigation Program and the need for updated basin science.

The meeting opened with presentations from Mike Bittner, Bend’s Water Services Director, and Josh Newton, a tribal attorney, who said the councils have used a memorandum of understanding to create regular government-to-government consultation and a staff-level process to review water-right transfers in the Deschutes Basin.

“The Deschutes Basin is one of the most well studied basins in all of Oregon, and we really want to keep it that way. But our science is aging,” Mike Bittner said, urging coordinated investment in updated modeling to inform decision-making.

Josh Newton said the tribe views the consultation as central to basin management. “This is consultation. It’s government to government that they are co-manager of these resources,” Newton said, describing treaty-reserved rights the tribe holds in parts of…