When there was a big fight over water between the city of Bend and Central Oregon LandWatch about a decade ago, the court battle lasted years. The city said legal delays cost the city millions in added construction costs on a piping project to supply water to residents. So when we saw that LandWatch was objecting to the city’s plan to expand its Outback water site in the Deschutes National Forest, we took a look. It’s an oversimplification, but the tensions are similar. A decade ago, the city wanted to build a new pipe basically to convey water from Bridge Creek in the Deschutes National Forest to the city’s water system. The city wanted to ensure it had access to the surface water to supply residents into the future because, in part, the existing pipe was scores of years old. LandWatch objected saying the Forest Service did not adequately consider environmental impacts of the project.…