In the Media

Bend city councilors will grapple with a number of talking-point issues during their meeting Wednesday, causing them to kick off a work session about 30 minutes before the regular starting time.

When WaterWatch of Oregon filed a complaint with the state this week alleging the city of Bend’s Bridge Creek water system was operating illegally, the thrust of the argument was that the city wasn’t putting all the water it diverted to a “beneficial use.”

The city of Bend is determined — and we mean determined — to plow ahead with an enormously expensive project that will allow the continued diversion of water that otherwise would end up in Tumalo Creek and, eventually, the Deschutes River.

On one of his regular jogs through Shevlin Park last month, Bill Buchanan noticed something strange about Tumalo Creek.

Most members on the City of Bend’s newly formed Infrastructure Advisory Committee don’t think the municipality should reverse course on a planned $73 million upgrade of its Bridge Creek water system.

Bend City Councilors opted Wednesday to pursue the more expensive of two water treatment options as engineers continue to design a proposed $73 million reconstruction and expansion of the Bridge Creek water system.

An environmental advocacy group that focuses on protecting stream flows in Oregon wants the state to shut down the city of Bend’s Bridge Creek water system, claiming it has been operating illegally.

As workers with J & S Trucking reconstructed a section of Whychus Creek this fall, placing logs in the banks and boulders in the creek bed to create fish habitat, the work was a far cry from what the company was doing a decade ago.

By turning off a few valves and adding some new pipes to Bend’s water system, the city can save between 23 percent and 67 percent on those electricity bills, a recent study found.