SISTERS, Ore. — Cheers and claps rippled through a crowd of farmers, district managers, and public officials when Marc Thalacker, executive director of the Three Sisters Irrigation District, announced that the first steelhead made its way to Sisters last year.

Thalacker said that the fish was eaten by a bald eagle shortly after making its way up the flowing Whychus Creek.

The announcement was one of many anecdotal success stories shared at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the district’s third hydropower plant.

The modernization of the Three Sisters irrigation system has been 25 years in the making. Since 1997, Thalacker has spearheaded this transformation by initiating partnerships and collaborating with government agencies, farmers, nonprofits and the community.

“We're celebrating a real Oregon story of success, really a model that the rest of the nation is paying attention to,” said U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who traveled from Washington D.C. for the event.

Merkley USDA undersecretary Robert Bonnie, who said he was looking forward to learning from the collaborative effort set by the Three Sisters Irrigation District.

“I think the example that you're all setting here is really, really important,” said Bonnie. “I'm a guy with the least skin in the game here today but I've got a lot to learn and there’s a lot we can take back.”

Prior to the improvements, 50% of the water in the canals was lost to seepage and evaporation and Whychus Creek ran dry — stranding fish and affecting local wildlife.

Today, 62 of the 65 miles of canals have been piped, delivering pressurized water to approximately 200 farms. The system now has three hydropower plants — the third plant is set to go online by the end of August — that will generate a combined total of 4 million kilowatt hours of electricity, making the Three Sisters a carbon neutral irrigation district.

“These systems, when modernized, give us the flexibility to deal with extreme drought, allow us to use less water, allow farmers to make more money, and keep the water in the stream,” said Julie O’Shea, executive director of the Farmers Conservation Alliance, a nonprofit that helps create water management solutions that benefit both agriculture and the environment. “And now we have fish coming back that haven't been here since the 1800s.”

O’Shea is excited because for her, Three Sisters Irrigation District is the success story that will help propel other districts into modernization action.

“When I think about what is so amazing about being here at Three Sisters, I think about traveling around the West and meeting with districts who are just beginning this journey,” she said. “This project serves as a beacon of hope. It serves as an example of what a collective group of people with a strong leader and what a strong vision can do.”

Yet, despite the modernizing of Three Sisters Irrigation District being 25 years in the making, O’Shea and other experts are hopeful that other districts will experience a fraction of the timeline due to the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act, or PL-566. Its aim is to provide funding to implement watershed projects.

“​​What's amazing with something like PL-566, is it gives us a chance to accelerate, we can start having an impact in five years,” said O’Shea.

Merkley also expressed his support and hope that other districts throughout Oregon will follow Three Sisters lead. “We think this is the right solution, the right way to dedicate capital funds to rebuild and preserve really vital agriculture here in our state. …This effort may seem like a piping project, but this is really about whole communities succeeding together,” said Merkley.