Government Watchdogging Program

Action Needed — Speak Out Against a Terrible Bill for Rivers!

We have an urgent matter that needs your attention NOW. Please speak up in opposition to HB 3501, a terrible bill that would prohibit the state from considering public interest values, including effects on fish, wildlife, and water quality, when evaluating applications to change existing water rights in a process called a “transfer.” Background: While other states […]

Action Needed — Speak Out Against a Terrible Bill for Rivers! Read More »

Action Alert — Speak Up Now for Critical Investments in Oregon’s Waters!

Feb. 17, 2025 As our climate grows increasingly warmer and drier, Oregon needs effective science and data-driven water management. With climate change and water scarcity upon us, it’s imperative that Oregon invest in its water. The Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) is charged with managing Oregon’s waters, but the agency needs data, science, and management positions

Action Alert — Speak Up Now for Critical Investments in Oregon’s Waters! Read More »

Coalition Letter to EPA: Use of Safe Drinking Water Act in Areas of High Nitrate Contamination

Oct. 29, 2024 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Bruno PigottActing Assistant Administrator of WaterU.S. EPA Office of Water1201 Constitution Ave. NWWashington, DC 20004 Dear Mr. Pigott, Everyone in America deserves access to clean drinking water. But in multiple states and rural communities across the country, the undersigned organizations have documented numerous instances where communities face increasing threats

Coalition Letter to EPA: Use of Safe Drinking Water Act in Areas of High Nitrate Contamination Read More »

Written Remarks in Support of Revised Groundwater Allocation Rules

May 21, 2024 The public comment period has now closed on this initiative. If enacted, long-overdue updates to the state’s groundwater allocation rules will begin to rein in Oregon’s decades-long pattern of over-issuing pumping rights, and implement the guidelines of Oregon’s forward-looking, landmark 1955 Ground Water Act, including proposed changes to better account for impacts

Written Remarks in Support of Revised Groundwater Allocation Rules Read More »

Oregon Water Partnership Supports Appointment of Ivan Gall as Director of Oregon Water Resources Department

May 10, 2024 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For information please contact: Tommy Hough, WaterWatch of Oregon, tommy@waterwatch.org Oregon Water Partnership Supports Appointment of Ivan Gall as Director of Oregon Water Resources Department Oregon Senate to begin confirmation process of 26-year agency veteran at the end of May. Salem, Oregon — The Oregon Water Partnership (OWP) supports

Oregon Water Partnership Supports Appointment of Ivan Gall as Director of Oregon Water Resources Department Read More »

Audit: Oregon’s water watchdog agency is understaffed, overworked, has no plan for future

Audit: Oregon’s water watchdog agency is understaffed, overworked, has no plan for future by Andrew Theen The Oregonian/OregonLive December 15, 2016 Oregon’s Water Resources Department doesn’t have enough inspectors to enforce the state’s water laws, has no “clear understanding” of how much water is being used statewide and has no plan for the future, according

Audit: Oregon’s water watchdog agency is understaffed, overworked, has no plan for future Read More »

Draining Oregon: State Regulators Must Stop Approving Wells When Water Levels Are Unknown

By the Oregonian Editorial Board  |  Sept. 10, 2016  |  The Oregonian: Draining Oregon State regulators approve permits for wells in Oregon even as they suspect there isn’t enough water in some areas to keep pace. A permit application might state it “cannot be determined” whether enough ground water existed for the well. Yet time

Draining Oregon: State Regulators Must Stop Approving Wells When Water Levels Are Unknown Read More »

Draining Oregon: Water Giveaway Threatens Economic Chaos and Hurts Wildlife

By Kelly House and Mark Graves  |  July 26, 2016  |  The Oregonian: Draining Oregon Oregon is helping farmers drain the state’s underground reservoirs to grow cash crops in the desert, throwing sensitive ecosystems out of balance and fueling an agricultural boom that cannot be sustained, The Oregonian has found. Managers with the Oregon Water

Draining Oregon: Water Giveaway Threatens Economic Chaos and Hurts Wildlife Read More »

Feds threatened with second suit over Deschutes River management practices

Feds threatened with second suit over Deschutes River management practices By Kelly House The Oregonian/OregonLive August 13, 2015 A second environmental group has announced plans to sue the federal government over dam management practices that, it claims, are harming wildlife in the Deschutes River. WaterWatch of Oregon has issued notice to the U.S. Bureau of

Feds threatened with second suit over Deschutes River management practices Read More »

Tribe files dam lawsuit amicus

Tribe files dam lawsuit amicus Yuroks join Hoopa Valley effort against Klamath dams By Adam Spencer The Triplicate October 8, 2015 The Yurok tribe filed a friend of the court brief Friday in support of the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s lawsuit that asks the U.S. Court of Appeals to force a federal agency to end eight

Tribe files dam lawsuit amicus Read More »

Oregon Water Resources Commission Upholds Order Against McKenzie River Water Speculators

For Immediate Release June 4, 2014 Oregon Water Resources Commission Upholds Order Against McKenzie River Water Speculators Another Victory for McKenzie River and WaterWatch McKenzie River Photo by Tracey Adams On May 29th, the Oregon Water Resources Commission upheld a final order denying the Willamette Water Company’s controversial application for a permit to withdraw 34

Oregon Water Resources Commission Upholds Order Against McKenzie River Water Speculators Read More »

Victory for Oregon’s Rivers in Court of Appeals Ruling on Cottage Grove Water Right

For Immediate Release December 11, 2013 Contact: Jim McCarthy, jmac@waterwatch.org, 541-708-0731 Lisa Brown, lisa@waterwatch.org, 503-295-4039 x4 Victory for Oregon’s Rivers in Court of Appeals Ruling on Cottage Grove Water Right Precedent-setting decision closes harmful loophole, affirms protections for fish Today, the Court of Appeals of the State of Oregon handed down a victory for the

Victory for Oregon’s Rivers in Court of Appeals Ruling on Cottage Grove Water Right Read More »

LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST FOREST SERVICE PERMIT FOR CITY OF BEND WATER PROJECT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, NOVEMBER 14, 2013 LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST FOREST SERVICE PERMIT FOR CITY OF BEND WATER PROJECT BEND — Central Oregon LandWatch and WaterWatch of Oregon filed a lawsuit today in the Oregon Federal District Court seeking an injunction to prevent the U.S. Forest Service from authorizing the City of Bend to begin construction of a

LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST FOREST SERVICE PERMIT FOR CITY OF BEND WATER PROJECT Read More »

Conservation Groups File 60-Day Notice of ESA Challenge on Klamath Salmon

For Immediate Release WaterWatch of Oregon * Oregon Wild * Hoopa Valley Tribe Contacts: Jim McCarthy, WaterWatch, 541-941-9450 Steve Pedery, Oregon Wild, 503-283-6343 x212 Regina Chichizola, Hoopa Valley Tribe, 541-951-0126 Conservation Groups File 60-Day Notice of ESA Challenge on Klamath Salmon Coalition says Bureau of Reclamation continues to endanger Klamath River fish, wildlife by implementing

Conservation Groups File 60-Day Notice of ESA Challenge on Klamath Salmon Read More »

Cheney Role in Water Policy Explored

Cheney Role in Water Policy Explored The Interior Department’s inspector general found no political interference by Vice President Cheney leading up to the Klamath fish-kill in part because investigators were not looking for it, an Interior official told lawmakers yesterday. By AP washingtonpost.com August 01, 2007   The Interior Department‘s inspector general found no political interference

Cheney Role in Water Policy Explored Read More »

How much water flows? Who knows?

How much water flows? Who knows? By Karen McCowan Eugene Register-Guard March 01, 2007 The state is being urged to get a handle on how much of the precious natural resource is being used   Who’s using how much of Oregon’s most essential natural resource? Nobody really knows. Of the thousands of individuals and groups

How much water flows? Who knows? Read More »

Budget boosts Savage Rapids work

Budget boosts Savage Rapids work By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune February 07, 2007 President Bush’s proposed $2.9 trillion budget for next year includes $15 million toward completing a pumping plant that will lead to the removal of Savage Rapids Dam from the Rogue River by 2010. The money is proposed as part of the federal

Budget boosts Savage Rapids work Read More »

CAMPAIGN 2006: Proposition 84: Bond would preserve, restore state’s waterways

CAMPAIGN 2006: Proposition 84: Bond would preserve, restore state’s waterways By Greg Lucas San Francisco Chronicle October 10, 2006 (10-10) 04:00 PDT Sacramento — Proposition 84 would split $5.4 billion in bond money between a laundry list of water-related projects and spending on natural resources preservation and restoration, including $400 million for state parks. Among the

CAMPAIGN 2006: Proposition 84: Bond would preserve, restore state’s waterways Read More »

Editorial: Final court for fish

Editorial: Final court for fish Sacramento Bee October 27, 2005   There is a worrisome trend about water and the West that may soon hit close to home: Judges are throwing out Bush administration plans to “restore” endangered fish populations because the plans flunk the test of sound, defensible science. One case involves the Columbia

Editorial: Final court for fish Read More »