The backers of a controversial, Central Oregon destination resort got a greenlight from Deschutes County officials this week, while a state agency continues to block any water use at the site.
On Monday, two Deschutes County commissioners carried a vote to approve the Thornburgh resort’s latest plan for mitigating its impacts to fish and wildlife.
Commissioners Tony DeBone and Patti Adair were not swayed by opposition from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and hundreds of public comments.
Plans for the sprawling resort near Redmond date back decades, and construction is now underway on roads and a golf course. Ultimately, the site could host nearly 1,000 homes, a luxury hotel and at least one lake. Critics and environmental groups have long waged appeals and lawsuits, and the project has become a lightning rod in debates about Oregon’s land-use and water laws.
The county commission decided in its written decision that widespread concerns about regional well declines have “no bearing on whether Thornburgh mitigates its own water use to ensure no net loss or degradation of habitat.”
A map shows the footprint of the nearly 2,000 acre Thornburgh resort site in relation to Redmond, Oregon.
MacGregor Campbell / OPB
“There’s a lot, big picture, about water and drought and lack of water, but water rights are water rights and I do support that,” DeBone said at the meeting.
Adair echoed the sentiment: “Water rights are water rights,” she said.
According to Oregon’s chief water rights administrator, Thornburgh’s developer does not currently have any approved permits to use water.
The resort had permits for wells approved in 2013, but under state law, that authorization lapsed when well construction was not underway within five years. By then, the state’s approach to regulating groundwater was shifting. Last year, the Oregon Department of Water Resources said it would deny the resort’s request for an extension of time to build its wells. Thornburgh’s developer is now fighting that in court.
“They currently have no other approved water use applications that we are aware of at this time,” state Water Right Services Division Administrator Dwight French said in an email.
In recent years, Thornburgh developer Kameron DeLashmutt has acquired millions of dollars worth of water rights in the Deschutes Basin, intending to transfer their authority to the resort site miles away, or mitigate its impacts by leaving water in streams elsewhere.
DeLashmutt insists he can begin drawing water from permits that are currently under legal challenge, and called claims that his permits are expired “a complete lie.” He has substantially scaled back the plans to be more water-conscious, and taken extensive measures to ensure fish and wildlife aren’t harmed, he said.
“We have done an incredible amount of technical analysis on all aspects of this plan to show that we were providing net benefits, which is far above and beyond the scope that we needed to do,” DeLashmutt said.
Public land surrounds the Thornburgh destination resort site in Central Oregon's Deschutes County, show in this June 22, 2022 file photo, where a construction is underway amid legal challenges to the project's water rights.
Emily Cureton Cook / OPB
“This is not about Thornburgh,” he added. “This is a battle over disagreeing with state law… And as a result, we have had over 70 appeals.”
County mortgage records filed this month show DeLashmutt increased his line of credit to borrow more than $30 million for Thornburgh, with numerous water rights listed as “personal property” securing the loan.
Last week, the Oregon Water Resources Department sent his attorneys a draft decision denying another one of his applications. DeLashmutt seemed unfazed this week.
“In the event that we can’t do it one way, we will do it one of the other ways,” he said.
This month, the state extended a public comment period on another potentially crucial water source for the resort, until May 11.
It’s unclear how Deschutes County’s recent approval of the fish and wildlife plan could influence the ongoing water use conflicts to be decided at the state level.
One of the resort’s most dedicated adversaries is Nunzie Gould. She lives near the site, where state data show a trend of groundwater declines. She’s been watching her neighbors replace well after well, she said.
“It would be nice if the politicians actually understood what they were talking about,” Gould said. “And I feel like two of our county commissioners are just clueless.”
The county’s written decision dismissed concerns from Warm Springs’ general manager of natural resources, Austin Smith Jr., who had asked for more time to review impacts “because the fishery resources at issue are both treaty-protected and vital to the Tribe’s cultural identity and existence.”
DeBone and Adair’s final decision said that the tribes “provided no expert testimony on water in any respect.”
Commissioner Phil Chang voted against the approval.