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Sisters, Oregon
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Water flow normal through Sisters
By Jim Cornelius

Squaw Creek looks summer time dry to Sisters residents who live along its banks.

Yet stream flows are actually considered normal in the watershed. Squaw Creek is at 103 percent of average according to data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The creek is expected to have normal flows through the summer.

Normal flows are not enough to cover the irrigation rights on the stream, according to Deschutes County Watermaster Kyle Gorman.

"No matter if it's 80 percent of average or 100 percent of average, the creek's going to look like that through most of the summer," Gorman said.

Still, with some water allocated back to the stream by Squaw Creek Irrigation District, and moving a diversion further downstream, there should be more water in the creek where it runs through town.

The reason the creek looks so low this spring, Gorman said, is that we've had a lot of cold weather that has kept moisture locked up in snow and ice at high elevation.

"If it gets close to freezing, you don't get much runoff," he said.

According to Gorman, it requires four or five nights of temperatures in the 40s or 50s to release runoff. Some years, that happens early. Some years -- like this one -- it doesn't happen until June.

Gorman said that residents along the creek should see more water soon, as run-off is released.

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