Thank you to WaterWatch members, supporters, and friends for your responses in letting the Oregon Water Resources Department know you support the adoption of strong rules to sustain groundwater, habitat, and species in the Harney Basin over the last month.
After an extensive, multi-year, multi-stakeholder process and in-depth scientific study, the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) issued proposed rules this summer to establish a critical groundwater area in the Harney Basin which would ultimately allow the agency to limit pumping to achieve stable groundwater levels.
Groundwater in the Harney Basin supports a variety of fish and wildlife habitats, including redband trout and a groundwater-dependent lake home to an endemic crawfish, and includes the world famous Malheur National Wildlife Refuge — a vital resting, breeding, and nesting area for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds and wildlife along the Pacific Flyway.
Unfortunately, the basin continues to experience significant groundwater declines due to groundwater pumping, primarily for irrigation to grow alfalfa, with the volume of water removed from the ground far outpacing the amount of available water to replenish underground reserves, known as “recharge.” WaterWatch first helped sound the alarm over this issue in 2014, and helped build support for major improvements of the state’s groundwater allocation rules 10 years later.
Since 1980, groundwater pumping has reduced the amount of groundwater-supported springs and streams in the Harney Basin lowlands by more than 40 percent. There’s also been a similarly significant decrease in natural evapotranspiration in the lowlands in the Harney Basin, meaning the groundwater-fed native vegetation that wildlife and some domestic animals rely upon is drying up due to groundwater pumping.
If enacted, the proposed OWRD rules set the stage for stabilizing groundwater levels within the Harney Basin by 2058 (an additional step will be required prior to limiting pumping), and implement three groundwater management tools authorized by Oregon statute:
- Establish a Critical Groundwater Area
- Establish a Serious Water Management Problem area which requires measurement and reporting of all non-exempt groundwater use
- Classify the basin to limit new groundwater uses to exempt uses only
While stabilizing groundwater levels would require adjustments for many irrigators in the basin, we are encouraged this approach will provide the basin with a more sustainable future.
Thank you for your help advocating for sustainable groundwater use and groundwater dependent ecosystems in the Harney Basin with your emails, remarks via our action alert page, and with your letters to OWRD.
Sandhill crane banner photo courtesy of Roger Baker / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Western grebes footer photo courtesy of Barbara Wheeler / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
