--- title: who depends on the crooked river canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/who-depends-on-the-crooked-river markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/who-depends-on-the-crooked-river.md subtitle: "a city of about twelve thousand, two campuses, and 898 irrigators" category: ensurance --- # who depends on the crooked river *a city of about twelve thousand, two campuses, and 898 irrigators* Mid-July in Prineville, the heat comes off the rimrock and sits in the juniper until well after dark. Sprinklers go on at dusk. The Crooked River runs low and green through the middle of town, past the fairgrounds, and keeps heading north. The water in your tap at that hour is part river valley and part last winter — shallow groundwater beside the Crooked, plus water the city pumped underground months ago and pulled back out for exactly this week. That is one small town's water. What makes it worth a closer look is how many parties are standing on it at the same moment, and how few of them have ever appeared on the same piece of paper. ## who actually drinks prineville water Prineville counted 10,736 people in the 2020 census and an estimated 11,994 as of 1 July 2025. Call it a city of about twelve thousand. On that same water sit two named data center campuses and a third operator the city has not identified publicly, an irrigation district with 898 patrons, and about six miles of a tributary that goes dry every irrigation season. | who depends | on what | when it shows | |---|---|---| | Ratepayers | city wells, plus groundwater banked in winter | the hottest week of the summer | | Data center campuses | the same municipal system | the same week | | 898 irrigators | stored water in Prineville and Ochoco reservoirs | April through October | | Steelhead | about six miles of McKay Creek | every year the creek runs dry | None of those four can be moved to a different river. Reintroduced steelhead above Round Butte sit on a project co-owned by Portland General Electric and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, downstream sovereigns, not a party this series invoices. That is the situation in one table. ## a system sized for the peak, not the average A municipal system serving twelve thousand people is not built for an average year. It is built for the handful of days when every lawn, every cooling load, and every hose is running at once, and the margin between enough and not enough is thin. If you pay a City of Prineville water bill, that margin is the thing you are actually buying. Since 2021 the city has been taking shallow groundwater near the Crooked in winter, when demand is low, injecting it upslope, and recovering it in summer. That is [managed aquifer recharge](/guide/managed-aquifer-recharge?from=guide) in one clause — a winter deposit against a summer withdrawal, using a reservoir that was already there. The city monitors and maintains the wells. A second phase is anticipated at 150 million gallons a year and still sits in the "not yet generating benefits" appendix of the August 2025 volumetric report, which means it is a plan, not a supply. ## two campuses, the same tap, and one share quoted two ways Apple and Meta both operate data centers in Prineville. The city's own release describes an Apple grant of $8.7 million for the first injection well — the campus paid for infrastructure the whole town draws from. Meta's 2024 facility table lists 328 megaliters withdrawn at Prineville in that year. One year, one site, as published. Then there is the number everyone quotes. In March 2026, the city's public works lead said the three data centers use about 10 percent of the water used in Prineville. In May 2024, the Bend Bulletin described that share in terms of peak days — roughly the ten hottest days of the year. Those are two statements, two years apart, and they are not interchangeable. Keep them separate. The honest version is that a tenth is the figure the city has used, and the peak-day framing is where the pressure actually lives. The third operator was not named in either account, and this post is not going to guess at it. What matters for everyone else on the list is simpler: on the hot week, the campuses and the households are on the same system, drawing from the same aquifer, at the same hour. ## 898 irrigators and water that is already spoken for Ochoco Irrigation District covers about 20,062 acres and serves 898 irrigators, operating Ochoco Reservoir and Prineville Reservoir. Those are the hay fields, the pasture, and the pivots you drive past on the way out of town. Their water is not spare capacity sitting in a reservoir waiting for a buyer. It is a delivery obligation with a century of law behind it. That makes the district the counterparty on the most interesting piece of the whole basin, not a customer to be sold anything. The McKay Creek exchange would give irrigators stored water from Prineville Reservoir and move their creek rights instream — the creek stays wet, the farms stay whole. Steelhead is the reason named in the report. The anticipated benefit is listed at about 35 million gallons a year, and it is not in the 2024 count, because the trade has not happened yet. ## the one party on the river with no meter Roughly six miles of McKay Creek go dry each season because the water is doing agricultural work somewhere else. Nothing about that is anyone's villainy; it is what prior appropriation does when the right is older than the fish's legal standing. But it is worth saying plainly that the dry reach is the only dependent on this list without a bill, a board, or a seat. Steelhead do not file comments. That creek has its own post in this series. ## the check they already share Here is the part that should surprise people who assume nothing works. The meadow came first: about 15 acres on Auger Creek in the Ochoco National Forest, a fen that had been draining, plugged and ponded in 2019. LimnoTech counts 1.5 million gallons a year of storage from it, with benefits running through 2029. Then the wells: Phase I injecting since 2021, with 30.3 million gallons a year of recharge attributed to Meta's cost share through 2030. In the Columbia chapter of the 2024 report, those two together come to 31.8 million gallons. Read the payor list on that work. Apple funded the first well. The City of Prineville operates and monitors the system. Meta carries a cost share and reports the result. The Forest Service holds the meadow. Ochoco Irrigation District is at the table on the creek. Nobody in Prineville needs to be convinced that shared water is worth a shared check — they have already written one, and the plumbing is in the ground. What they do not have is a way to keep doing it that does not require assembling a brand-new deal every time. :::johnson **two of the three pieces are already paid for.** The meadow was restored in 2019. The wells have been injecting since 2021. The dry reach is still the open piece — and it is the one with no ratepayer and no campus on the ledger. [see what a source watershed partnership funds →](/solutions/utilities?from=guide&topic=crooked-river) ::: ## what a second layer would add Grants and volumetric reports are good instruments for building a thing once. They are poor instruments for holding a condition for twenty years. A well gets built, a report counts it, and then the next piece of work starts from zero — new partners, new memorandum, new construction gift. The second layer is a hold rather than a build: a certificate on the river itself that more than one party can carry at the same time, with proceeds going to the condition of the water rather than to a single structure. That is all *ensurance* is here — the funding mechanism for the river's condition. The Crooked, the meadow, the aquifer, and the dry reach exist either way. It does not replace the volumetric accounting, and it does not ask anyone to re-fund a well that is already running. It is the mechanism for the work that comes after the ribbon cutting, and it is the reason [the bill for a shared watershed was never one party's to carry alone](/guide/you-dont-have-to-shoulder-it-alone?from=guide). For a water utility, the unit is legible: a certificate on a watershed agent is a reportable watershed restoration partnership and a disclosed catchment footprint, which is exactly the **source watershed investment** use case on [the utilities page](/solutions/utilities?from=guide&topic=crooked-river). For the recharge work specifically, the theme already has a home in the protocol — [`aquifer-recharge.syndicate`](/aquifer-recharge.syndicate?from=guide) is the live syndicate those wells belong beside. That syndicate is not a Crooked River certificate; it is the category the Prineville wells sit inside. The Crooked line itself — `crooked river`, under the live parent `rivers-lakes.ensurance` — is in ideation, not minted. If you depend on this water and you want it to exist, you can [co-create it](/specific/create?mode=suggest&agent=rivers-lakes.ensurance&name=crooked%20river&from=guide): propose the line, a person reviews it, and the parent agent receives the proposal. That is a real door, not a waiting list. ## questions people ask ### where does prineville water come from? From the Crooked River valley. The city draws shallow groundwater near the river and, since 2021, has injected a portion of it underground in winter for recovery in summer. Irrigation water in the same basin comes from Prineville and Ochoco reservoirs through Ochoco Irrigation District. ### do data centers use 10 percent of prineville's water? About 10 percent is the figure the city's public works lead used in March 2026 for the three data centers. In May 2024, the Bend Bulletin described that share in peak-day terms, around the ten hottest days of the year. Both statements are on the record; they are not the same claim, and neither one says "10 percent every day." ### how big is ochoco irrigation district? About 20,062 acres and 898 irrigators. The district operates Ochoco Reservoir and Prineville Reservoir and is the counterparty on the proposed McKay Creek instream exchange. ### is there a crooked river certificate today? `crooked river` is in ideation under [`rivers-lakes.ensurance`](/rivers-lakes.ensurance?from=guide). It is not minted. [Co-create it](/specific/create?mode=suggest&agent=rivers-lakes.ensurance&name=crooked%20river&from=guide) — a person reviews the suggestion. ## what you can do with this If you run the utility, the campus, or the county, you are already one of four parties on a shared system, and three of you have already proven you will co-fund. The remaining question is whether the next contribution is another one-time build or a hold that keeps paying for condition. [talk to someone who can help →](/contact?from=guide&topic=crooked-river) ## sources [Volumetric Water Benefits: 2024 Report](https://sustainability.atmeta.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/REVISED_FINAL_Meta_2024_Volumetric_Water_Benefit_Report_08.21.2025.pdf) — LimnoTech for Meta, August 2025. Ingram Meadow, Prineville aquifer storage and recovery, the McKay Creek exchange, and the 31.8 million gallons counted for 2024. [City of Prineville release on the Apple grant](https://www.meadowlakesgc.com/sites/default/files/fileattachments/city_administration/page/12381/press_release_-_prineville_apple_002.pdf) — the $8.7 million grant for the first injection well, as stated by the city. [KTVZ, 5 March 2026](https://ktvz.com/news/problem-solvers/2026/03/05/problem-solvers-tech-investment-in-state-of-the-art-water-system-could-reshape-prinevilles-economy/) — the city's public works lead on the roughly 10 percent share. [Bend Bulletin, 9 May 2024](https://bendbulletin.com/2024/05/09/prineville-doubles-down-on-water-conservation-with-tech-giant-backed-project/) — the peak-day reading of that share, and the winter pumping arrangement. [Census QuickFacts, Prineville city, Oregon](https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/prinevillecityoregon) — 10,736 counted 1 April 2020; 11,994 estimated 1 July 2025. ## the series - [what the crooked river depends on](/guide/what-the-crooked-river-depends-on?from=guide) - [who depends on the crooked river](/guide/who-depends-on-the-crooked-river?from=guide) - [six miles of mckay creek still go dry](/guide/mckay-creek-still-goes-dry?from=guide) - [the ten hottest days in prineville](/guide/the-ten-hottest-days-in-prineville?from=guide) - [who already pays for the crooked river](/guide/who-already-pays-for-the-crooked-river?from=guide)