For farmers in and around Madras, the summer of 2026 is another chapter in a drought story that has been unfolding for years — one defined by shrinking reservoirs, dry wells, and a 19th-century water law that determines who keeps irrigating and who does not.
A new investigation published this week by ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting puts a sharp focus on how Oregon's prior appropriation water law — the "first in time, first in right" doctrine — plays out in the Deschutes River Basin, with Jefferson County farmers among the hardest hit.
A Third of Irrigated Land Fallowed
According to the investigation, farmers in Jefferson County have stopped cultivating roughly one-third of the county's irrigated acreage during recent drought years as their water allocations were curtailed. Meanwhile, upstream irrigation districts — most notably the Central Oregon Irrigation District (COID) in Bend — hold senior water rights that shield them from cutbacks even in dry years.
COID controls rights to more than half the volume of the Deschutes River during peak irrigation season. Because COID's rights date to the early 1900s — near the front of the line when the state first allocated the river — state water law requires junior rights holders to be curtailed first when the basin runs short.
The reporting found that during drought years, only 1 in every 4 gallons COID diverted from the river was actually absorbed by crops — with much of the remainder lost to leaky canals or used to irrigate lawns and landscaping on high-value Bend real estate. Oregon state officials did not dispute the analysis, though COID leadership questioned the data.
Real Consequences for Real Families
The human toll shows up across Jefferson County. Chris Casad, a 38-year-old Madras-area farmer profiled in the investigation, bought his 85-acre property in 2017 hoping to expand a vegetable operation. Instead, water shortages forced him to fallow fields, take outside work, and watch his farm accumulate debt.
"There were a number of suicides, let alone people who closed up shop," Casad said, describing the toll on the broader farming community. "Older farmers just not wanting to waste their life's worth of work and their savings on just trying to keep it going."
2026: Another Difficult Year
Oregon water officials have warned that 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most severe drought years in recent memory, driven by historically low snowpack, the warmest winter in state history, and multi-year precipitation deficits. The Oregon Water Resources Department notes conditions are comparable to 2015, when a snow drought contributed to 25 of 36 Oregon counties being declared drought emergencies.
For Jefferson County's agricultural community — which depends heavily on Deschutes irrigation water — the season's outlook is bleak. State officials have warned that some irrigators could face shutoffs as the summer progresses and flows continue to decline.
Water rights reform advocates say the 2026 season may increase pressure on the Oregon Legislature to revisit how the state balances the competing interests of senior agricultural water users, junior irrigators, and the river ecosystem itself.