Cyruses and SCID fight over ditch

The war over water between the Keith Cyrus family and the Squaw Creek Irrigation District went to court last week.

The central dispute now concerns ownership of the "Cloverdale Ditch," a primary irrigation canal serving land east of Sisters in Cloverdale and Lower Bridge.

Cyrus claims that he purchased the ditch when he bought the land it runs across, the Skelton property, in 1958.

SCID disputes this, saying that SCID took over the canal in an agreement signed in 1940. In exchange, according to SCID, Skelton received his water measured at his property line instead of at the diversion on Squaw Creek, increasing the amount of water he could use. Skelton also reduced his cost of maintaining the ditch.

Cyrus claims that an affidavit signed by Keith's uncle, George Cyrus, in 1947, says that ownership of the ditch was not transferred, that the 1940 agreement only gave SCID the right to run "its" water through the canal.

The two sides have together spent possibly as much as $50,000 in fighting this battle.

There is more at stake than simple ownership. The canal currently runs through Aspen Lakes Golf Course, and is a prominent "water feature" of that subdivision development.

On July 3, 2000, Keith and Connie Cyrus transferred 2 percent of their claimed ownership in the canal to Aspen Lakes Development, LLC, a Cyrus family partnership, for $5,000 and "consideration: other value," according to the transfer agreement.

The canal "runs through the Aspen Lakes Property and bestows aesthetic benefit and increased value to the golf course improvements on the Aspen Lakes Property," states the transfer document from Keith Cyrus to Aspen Lakes.

At the same time, the canal leaks. SCID wants to put the water in a pipe. This would save as much as four to eight cubic feet per second that currently drains away in the porous soil (See story on page 1).

Three cfs, or about 80,880 gallons per hour, would be returned to Squaw Creek where it runs through Sisters under an arrangement with the Oregon Water Resources Council and the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, which together provided about $260,000 to purchase the 24 inch diameter pipe to transport the water.

This could nearly double the amount of water in Squaw Creek during the dry summer months, according to the council.

Judge Stephen Tiktin heard witnesses last week. Arguments over the Cloverdale Ditch are scheduled to be presented to the court on November 7.