Aug. 18, 2024
By Neil Brandt with WaterWatch Staff
Oregon recently welcomed new directors at three of the state’s natural resource agencies with missions related to water, including Ivan Gall at the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD), Debbie Colbert at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), and Sara O’Brien at the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB). One common theme raised in all of the appointment processes this past spring was the need for change in how the state manages our water resources, with questions especially focused on the role of the new director at the Oregon Water Resources Department.
By law, all water from all sources belongs to the public in Oregon. Unfortunately, as we’ve often noted at WaterWatch, our waters have been administered for decades under a largely outdated system of laws and policies that emphasize consumptive water use rather than sustainable water management. As in other western states, Oregon’s laws allocate water on a “first come, first served” basis, meaning the earliest water rights take precedence over all other uses, i.e. the first user gets as much water as their right allows, the next person gets what’s left, and so on until there is often nothing left to distribute.
This arrangement has typically failed to recognize uses of water by native people, and until recently failed to make any consideration for flows needed by fish and wildlife. While there has been some progress over the years to update these archaic water laws and practices to better protect instream values, it remains entirely legal to dry up a stream in Oregon during the summer and fall months — even in especially dry years. Lamentably, this is a common occurrence.
While the dual mission of the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) is to “directly address Oregon’s water supply needs” and “restore and protect streamflows and watersheds in order to ensure the long-term sustainability of Oregon’s ecosystems, economy, and quality of life,” a century of mismanagement has led to over-allocated streams and declining aquifers across the state. This has left many of Oregon’s fish and wildlife, cultures, and river-related economies high and dry. With climate change making long-standing problems even worse, we cannot continue with this status quo. Oregon must modernize its approach to sustainable water management — our state’s water future depends upon it.
The appointment of Mr. Gall as director at the OWRD gives us hope the agency will continue to build upon the progress underway there. A good example of this progress are the proposed changes to the state’s groundwater allocation rules, which are expected to be adopted this fall. These science-based updates will move the state away from issuing unsustainable groundwater rights, and ensure better protection of streamflows and cold water inputs to Oregon rivers and streams from the impacts of over-pumping hydraulically-connected groundwater. They are exactly the type of change Oregon’s water management needs in order to guarantee a sustainable, equitable, and environmentally-sound water future.
WaterWatch calls on Oregon, and the OWRD in particular, to continue moving forward with the adoption and implementation of these revised groundwater allocation rules, along with these additional concerns:
Streamflow Protection and Restoration — The importance of protecting and restoring streamflows is found in statute, rule, and Oregon’s Integrated Water Resources Strategy. It is also one prong of the OWRD’s dual mission. OWRD should work with its sister agencies to ensure efficient pathways to new instream water rights, scenic waterways, and outstanding resource water designations, and build up the tools and programs needed to successfully restore streamflows in waterways across Oregon.
Measurement and Reporting of Surface Groundwater Use — Water measurement and reporting is the cornerstone of responsible water management, yet less than 20 percent of water users measure how much they take from Oregon’s rivers, streams, and aquifers. Oregon needs this data to better manage water use on the ground and plan for the future.
Environmental Review of Water Transfers — Oregon is overdue to modernize our water transfer system to ensure aquatic ecosystems are not harmed when old water rights are moved to new uses or places. Transfers provide one of the biggest loopholes in Oregon’s water laws in protecting the environment, and both rivers and fish are suffering because of it.
Enforcement Against Illegal Use — Oregon’s rivers and streams are largely over-allocated, and aquifers are declining in many parts of the state. It is more important than ever for the state to regulate and enforce laws against illegal use of water — including wasteful use of water — to ensure protection for water right holders and the environment.
Investment in Data — Oregon must continue to invest in collecting, analyzing, and distributing sound water data, including funding groundwater studies, stream gauges, and observation wells. Good data is the foundation of good decisions.
As the agency moves forward to enact change and modernize Oregon’s water management policies, we at WaterWatch urge the OWRD and its new director to focus on robust water management, including the protection and restoration of instream needs. Protecting and restoring our rivers, streams, wetlands, and lakes is written into OWRD’s mission, and strong instream protections are vital for the fish, wildlife, and the people and communities that rely on healthy rivers to survive.
Neil Brandt is the executive director of WaterWatch of Oregon. An earlier version of this article appeared as the Stream of Consciousness entry in the summer 2024 issue of WaterWatch’s Instream newsletter.
Banner photo of the Owyhee River by Bob Wick, U.S. Bureau of Land Management.