The Oregon Water Resources Department had a meeting on April 9 covering their legislative priorities for the 2027-2029 biennium and the Deschutes Basin Mitigation Program on April 15. I encourage you to watch these recordings yourself but I’ll provide my observations below. The groundwater mitigation program is critically important for all Central Oregonians and perhaps especially by anglers. Groundwater is a complex issue that until recently was mostly under the radar but in the past few years has been getting more attention. The DGMP will be the subject of multiple posts this year as the program undergoes its five year review process but here is an overview for folks who want to dive in. That should include you. Comments from the public are overwhelmed by consumptive water users.

OWRD’s April 9 meeting went over their legislative goals for the next biennium. Like all other state agencies, OWRD has a tight budget and has been told by the governor they may have a budget decrease. The most interesting item in OWRD’s list of legislative goals was a “placeholder” for a future discussion of water scarcity and the need for new “water resources management solutions”. What that means was not disclosed, but at least it indicates that even slow-moving OWRD understands that water availability and management is in need of reform. I’m not hopeful that anything significant will be implemented in the next biennium, after all whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting, but the discussion is overdue.

While I have been a vocal critic of OWRD for many years, I do need to acknowledge their welcome, but flawed, new rules for groundwater permits implemented in 2024. It’s a step in the right direction that needs much more work.

OWRD: time to start measuring groundwater? is a post from 2022 when OWRD was first starting to talk about measuring groundwater levels before approving new groundwater permits. Groundwater: time to speak up! is a post from 2024 when the new groundwater drilling rules were being finalized, the post provides some background, and identifies issues I have with the new rules, most notably that it is narrow in scope and is NOT designed to reverse groundwater declines. This is old news but good context.

The April 15 meeting covered the process they are starting for the required five year review of the DGMP. This is going to be a contentious issue with opposing viewpoints, including from local elected representatives, as evidenced in the comments during the meeting. The current DGMP sunsets on January 1, 2029. Given that the current review will extend past the sunset it is time critical. OWRD is proposing to extend the existing program for 10 years but adding consultation with the Confederated Tribes of Water Springs and acknowledgment of their reserved water rights and role as a co-manager. It will be interesting to see how adding CTWS to the decision making process plays out.

OWRD has a webpage on the DGMP which provides a lot of information including how to submit comments for the first comment period on May 15. While I acknowledge that the DGMP has provided benefits, many state agencies, environmental groups, and individuals such as myself have pointed out serious shortcomings that have existed since it was first implemented in 2002. OWRD has shortened the long list of objections into a very short four page summary which does not fully capture the well articulated comments. OWRD claims they will take these longstanding comments into account in this current review process. I hope so, but they have been ignoring them for decades.

I have a whole section on this blog on groundwater issues, including the last DGMP review in 2021, but here are a few posts that could be of interest for those exploring the issue.

Wonky But Important: DBGMP 5-Year Review is an overview of the DGMP. It provides a reasonable summary and some of my concerns at the time, all of which continue to this day. The draft document provides a full list of all the submitted comments which I found very informative. This draft was approved by the legislature. As the title states, My Comments on the Groundwater Mitigation Program, are the comments I submitted during the last process, none of which were incorporated into the approved plan. And to wrap it up, Groundwater Mitigation Review Complete.

Here’s another post that is directly relevant. Deschutes Groundwater Mitigation 101 and Thornburgh is a post from 2020 which talks about some of the issues with the DGMP as applied to the proposed Thornburgh Resort.