© 2002
The Nugget Newspaper
Sisters, Oregon
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The contents of the on-line edition of The Nugget represent a selection among the stories that appear in the weekly print edition.

School district will save thousands on water
By Jim Cornelius

In the face of an evaporating state budget, the Sisters School District got some welcome financial news last week.

The district secured water mitigation credits that will allow the district to irrigate 50 acres of playing fields at a fraction of the cost of city water.

Mitigation credits grew out of recent studies that indicate that ground water and stream flows are connected in Central Oregon. New regulations require that removal of water from the system be compensated for by putting surface water instream.

A user who puts water instream receives "mitigation credits," which are transferable.

A "mitigation bank" -- the Deschutes Water Exchange -- leased credits from Squaw Creek Irrigation District and the school district leased them from the Exchange.

The transaction marked the first purchase of mitigation credits since the program was announced last September.

The Sisters School District leased its mitigation credits for $2,640.

Even with pumping costs, the district would spend only an estimated $12,000 for irrigation, a far cry from the $57,000 budgeted to use city water.

"It’s not a permanent solution," said school board member Bill Reed, who spearheaded the effort to secure mitigation credits. "We anticipate that we will be able to lease the mitigation credits again on an annual basis until such time as we can do permanent mitigation."

Reed said that purchasing permanent mitigation credits will be much less expensive for the district than either using city water or purchasing ground water rights on the open market.

The new $21 million Sisters High School is scheduled to open on September 15.

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