Co-chair Walker, Co-chair Jenson, my name is Kimberley Priestley and I am here representing WaterWatch of Oregon. Founded in 1985, WaterWatch is a non-profit river conservation group dedicated to the protection and restoration of natural flows in Oregon’s rivers. WaterWatch works to ensure that enough water is protected in Oregon’s rivers to sustain fish, wildlife, recreation and other public uses of Oregon’s waterways. We also work for balanced water laws and policies. WaterWatch has hundreds of members across Oregon who care deeply about our waterways, fish and wildlife and the effects of water laws and policies on these resources.

WaterWatch urges the Joint Ways and Means Natural Resources Subcommittee to fund the Water Resources Department (WRD) to the fullest extent possible.

Basic management of Oregon’s water resources is one of the states most critical environmental and economic challenges. Eighteen out of nineteen of Oregon’s river basins are already over appropriated from the late spring to the early fall. At the same time, population growth and climate change are increasing the pressure on Oregon’s waterways and aquifers.

While we understand the gravity of the state’s budget crisis, we urge the Ways and Means subcommittee to retain the WRD’s base budget to the maximum extent possible.  The WRD is already understaffed for the essential jobs it must perform. The WRD continues to operate with reduced capacity in key areas and under the damaging effects of multiple budget cuts during the 1990s and earlier in this decade.

That said, to the extent the state must prioritize agency functions and institute some agency cuts, we offer the following brief comments in addition to a March 31, 2009 memorandum from multiple organizations that was previously distributed to the subcommittee but is also attached for reference.

WRD Priorities: Oregon has already granted over 85,000 water rights to date. Most rivers and stream are already overappropriated during most of the year. Users are turning to groundwater, but Oregon lacks scientific knowledge in many areas of the state sufficient to understand the effects of new groundwater use on existing surface water rights. Accordingly, the WRDs top priorities should be focused on water management, developing the scientific information necessary to inform sound surface and groundwater management, and water allocation and reallocation decisions.

1.  Water Distribution (36 Existing FTE): Oregon has already granted over 85,000 water rights to date. Given the overappropriated state of most rivers in Oregon, as well as the need to understand the connections between surface and groundwater, we agree with the WRD’s ranking of Water Distribution as the agency’s number one priority. Currently, less than 40 watermasters are tasked with managing over 85,000 water rights on the ground. During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s local governments provided funding for as many as 40 assistant watermasters, who were hired to manage water and protect senior water rights. It is our understanding that today less than 20 locally-funded watermasters remain. At the same time, demands on department field staff have increased. The number of new water rights issued has increased, customer contracts and expectations are increasing, and the demand for accurate scientific streamflow and groundwater data for regulation to protect senior water rights and to address new and changing water demands in increasing. The importance of these positions cannot be understated.

6.  Hydrographic Data Collection (5 Existing FTE):  The hydrographic team prepares streamflow, reservoir and precipitation data, as well as providing support to streamflow gauging efforts. Surface water flows in Oregon are overallocated statewide. Elimination of these positions will have a negative affect across a broad spectrum of water users— instream, irrigation districts, individual farms, cities and industry alike. Given limited water resources, as well as the new challenges resulting from population growth and climate change, it is imperative that this program remains whole. We cannot sacrifice limited measurement capacity if we ever hope to manage Oregon’s waters properly. This should be one of the WRD’s top four priorities.

7.  Ground water/surface water monitoring and investigation (17 Existing FTE): Nearly all rivers in Oregon are overallocated during the late spring, summer and early fall months. As a result, over the past decade the state has seen a large increase in groundwater applications for new uses. At the same time, there has been increasing concern about the effect of new groundwater pumping on existing senior surface and groundwater rights, hydraulically connected river flows and aquifer health. The groundwater staff positions are critical to ensuring the protection of our state’s groundwater resources, as well as the water right holders and rivers that rely on groundwater to supply surface flows for senior users. These positions should be one of the WRD’s top four priorities.

8.   Water Supply and Conservation (18 Existing FTE):  The WRD ranks the water supply and conservation program as number eight of its twelve ranked priorities. WaterWatch is concerned with this low ranking, especially as it relates to work to transfer or lease water instream, or to encourage the use of the Conserved Water Statute. Instream transfers, leases, and conserved water statute transfers provide an important service to a broad spectrum of interests—from the fish and rivers that benefit from the direct flow benefits, to the farmers who enjoy protection from forfeiture by leasing their water instream temporarily. The Conserved Water Statute is also being used by irrigation districts and others to protect water instream, and to offset Endangered Species Act liabilities. The funding of the positions associated with these functions should be one of the WRD’s top four priorities.

Conclusion: WaterWatch recognizes the severity of the budget crisis. However, we also recognize the value and importance of a functioning WRD for all interests. Assuming some cuts may be required, we respectfully request that the Sub-Committee prioritize retaining key water management, science, field service, regulatory and streamflow restoration positions over the more traditional transactional functions when analyzing the proposed cuts. These identified functions are key to proper management of what is arguably the state’s most valuable resource – water.

WaterWatch recognizes the importance of the more traditional transactional functions of the WRD, such as water right permitting, consumptive use transfers, extension and certificate work. However, unlike the management and scientific work, the state has options to generate fees to pay for these transactional positions, including increased reliance on reimbursement authority or increased fees to support the necessary positions (currently the WRD only recovers 30% of the cost of application processing). There is no fee to cover the ongoing administration of water rights, and thus aside from the General Fund there are limited options to fund the critical water management, science and information positions.