'Old swimmin' hole' sacrificed for restoration

Ryan Houston, executive director of the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council (UDWC), presented his case for the removal of the diversion dam downstream from the Elm Street bridge in Sisters in a city council workshop on Monday, May 21.

Many in Sisters will remember this property as "the old swimming hole." Property owners with homes that back onto the creek in that area report pleasant interactions with many of the visitors, but also broken ankles, trash, near-drownings and an occasional keg left in the area.

There are three water-right holders, including the Leithauser family and the City of Sisters. Each of these water right holders is doing other things with their water. The diversion dam no longer serves any function, "... and it's pretty rickety looking," according to Mayor Lon Kellstrom.

UDWC wants to assist in the dam removal because it is one of the three remaining dams on Whychus Creek that inhibit fish migration.

"What we are trying to set this up as is one of those win-win projects where the irrigators no longer use it (the dam) and they don't want the maintenance and liability hassle," said Houston. "We (UDWC) are interested in the stream health, and we are able to get some funding to pay for the project. Pulling it all together and making it compatible with the local land owners that own the underlying property, we should all come out pretty well."

Once the diversion dam and supporting structure are removed, the island supporting the diversion dam would also be removed and the streambed reshaped to minimize the erosion "ping-pong" on both sides of the creek.

The newly fashioned creek will be shallow and swift with no pools. The creek banks are steep. With the island gone, visitors that use the 10-foot path to get to the creek will have no place to stand or sit except in the stream, no pool to swim in and no dam to jump from.

While the creek is public access up to the high-water mark, everything beyond the high water mark is somebody's backyard.

There are 10 property owners whose property abuts the creek (including Councilor Wendy Holzman who will likely recuse herself from council votes on this issue). The property owners, represented by owner Brian Flagler at the workshop, have been meeting with UDWC to understand the project and discuss the options.

The consensus of the homeowners and the council members present at the close of the workshop was that, due to the revised nature of the creek, the public access should be closed. (Councilor Sharlene Weed was away on business.)

A likely scenario is that the path will be split in half and each half added to the adjacent lot. One of the UDWC's first projects would be to add riparian fill to what was the path.

The in-stream work window, mandated by the State, is July through September. While the project will only take four weeks to complete, UDWC will have to get unanimous approval from the 10 property owners and from the City in June to make the work window for 2012. The City is fast-tracking their part of the process.