By Morgan Owen | April 9, 2025 | Bend Bulletin
In a major win for water rights activists, a Deschutes County judge has dismissed an appeal made by developers of the luxury Thornburgh Resort, upholding an earlier decision denying the resort a permit to draw water from the Deschutes River aquifer.
This ruling is the latest of several land-use appeals made by nearby residents and watchdog organizations in an ongoing battle over the resort’s allegedly excessive water use in the arid High Desert region. The 2,400-acre development, located in the Cline Buttes area west of Redmond, is slated to include at least 950 single-family homes, private lakes and hiking trails, a golf course, sports facilities, and a luxury hotel.
The original decision to deny Thornburgh’s limited water use permit was made by the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD), which concluded the development’s needs were not within the capacity of nearby water resources. The state’s rejection was later upheld at a trial in Nov. 2024, which cited data showing the Deschutes Basin has become drier overall in the past 30 years, largely due to the impact of climate change on precipitation and snowpack levels.
Wins and Losses
In his decision, Deschutes County Circuit Court Judge Raymond Crutchley called Oregon Water Resource Department’s rejection “rational, fair, and principled,” but Thornburgh developer Kameron DeLashmutt argues the state agency overlooked several key facts in determining the aquifer’s natural levels, such as artificial recharge from canals and flood irrigation.
“A recent (University of Oregon) report notes our aquifer is likely the largest aquifer in the world. Even so, OWRD, in determining the capacity of the aquifer, admits they don’t even consider the aquifer’s actual size or volume. They only look at water levels and simply equate declines to capacity. They do not consider volume of the aquifer, or even causation behind declines. Logically, that is a serious flaw,” DeLashmutt said.
For those who have been fighting against the Thornburgh development for years, such as water conservation organization WaterWatch of Oregon, Crutchely’s ruling is a major victory for preserving Central Oregon’s water resources. The organization claims that, if the court’s initial decision had been overturned, water pumping from the Thornburgh development could have threatened water levels in the Deschutes River, Crooked River, and Whychus Creek.
“This decision to uphold OWRD’s limited license denial is great news for the many fish and wildlife that depend on groundwater inputs in the Deschutes Basin to survive,” said WaterWatch executive director Neil Brandt. “Building a large, water-hungry resort with two golf courses in the High Desert in an area with already declining groundwater levels is simply not sustainable.”
In response to pushback and concerns over water use, DeLashmutt says developers have voluntarily reduced Thornburgh’s water use from 2,129 acre-feet — the amount of water it would take to cover one acre of land in one foot of water — per year to a maximum of 1,460 acre-feet per year in the name of sustainability. For reference, golf courses across America consume a median of 66.3 acre-feet per year, according to a study done by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, while the average U.S. household uses approximately one-third of an acre-foot per year.
Moving Forward
The Thornburgh development has been a battle 20 years in the making, with initial planning for the destination resort beginning in 2004. The proposed development was approved by the county in 2006, but development slowed in 2008 due to economic factors. In 2018, the county approved Thornburgh’s final master plan.
In practice, the most recent ruling complicates Thornburgh’s overall acquisition of water rights. Thornburgh has 10 additional petitions for water access that are either pending, under judicial review or have been approved. Even with several of those applications tied up in legal review, Thornburgh is still able to access enough water with its approved permits to begin the first phase of development.
But Crutchely’s ruling neither delayed nor freed up developers in their efforts to break ground, because the county must still issue a decision on an amendment to Thornburgh’s final master plan that addressed several fish and wildlife issues. The amendment was originally approved by the county, but opponents to the development appealed it on the grounds Thornburgh’s plan does not satisfy the “no net loss” standard regarding groundwater sources for fish habitat mitigation.
In February, the Land Use Board of Appeals sent the issue back to the county, which has yet to issue its decision.
This article and accompanying map originally appeared in the April 9, 2025, issue of the Bend Bulletin. WaterWatch makes no claim to this copyrighted material.
Banner image of the Sisters from Cline Buttes courtesy of Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management.
