Bill Buchanan, a local attorney and vocal opponent of the City’s Surface Water Improvement Plan (SWIP), has floated a draft proposal to City Council that (if adopted) would halt the construction of the Bridge Creek Pipeline pending a continuing legal challenge. Buchanan, who says he is not representing either of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit […]
SWIP
Posted inOpinion
Process Poopers
November has been a cruel month for public process in Bend. Last week, we reported on the continued drama surrounding the City of Bend’s major $69 million project to modernize Bend’s water delivery and treatment system. Namely, city council's Nov. 6, city council approval of a membrane filtration system to keep the city’s water safe. […]
Posted inNews
Who Will Speak for the Fish?
Another pipe permit, another lawsuit
Two weeks ago, the U.S. Forest Service issued a permit for the City of Bend to lay new pipe. The decision was, in golfing terms, a “mulligan.” A re-do, as a year earlier the City of Bend had applied for a similar permit to replace two decades-old pipes with a single, larger, 20 inch diameter, […]
Posted inOpinion
Pipe Dreams
When something as unglamorous as a water pipe attracts such attention as Bend’s Surface Water Improvement Project (SWIP) has, it is prudent to ask: Why? Why has the City so doggedly pursued a project that has opposition from both conservative developers and conservation-minded environmentalists? Why have City staff championed a project that has never had […]