Today the Bulletin published a guest column that I submitted that is a version of this recent post. I am thankful that they continue to publish columns and articles on the subject of water.

Groundwater availability is finally getting the broader attention it deserves in Central Oregon and Salem.  The Oregon Water Resources Department is now considering implementing a rule that would require water to be available prior to approving new groundwater permits (no, this has not been required in the past).  This proposed rule is inadequate in my opinion, but it is a welcome step in the right direction.  Not surprisingly, Central Oregon cities are not supportive of this change and in September released a whitepaper titled “Understanding Upper Deschutes Basin Groundwater Levels”.   They think domestic wells and the environment should not be considered when allocating water.

As I noted in this post, the Oregon Water Resources Department is currently seeking input on their intent to “modernize” their approach to groundwater allocation.  Historically, over 70% of all applications for new groundwater wells have been granted statewide.  Worse, 80% of all applications in areas of “groundwater concern”, like the Deschutes Basin, are approved.  These approvals have occurred even when there is no understanding of available groundwater levels or trends.  A change in the default policy to approve new wells is welcome and long overdue.  Unfortunately, there are some serious shortcomings in what OWRD is proposing so I encourage you to read the rest of this post and make a comment to OWRD.

I frequently criticize the Oregon Water Resource Department for what so many of us perceive as their lack of stewardship of our publicly owned resource. Their default mode of operation has been to approve any request for additional water use with no regard for its impact on ecosystems. That does appear to be changing, however, which is a welcome development although it has taken a crisis to spur it. OWRD is now conducting a series of in-person and online public outreach meetings on the subject of groundwater. One of the meetings will be in Bend on September 28th. Here are all the details. This is your chance to learn about their plans and make your voice heard.

I’ve been camping and off the grid for the past 6 days but I’m back online and see that last Sunday the Bend Bulletin finally printed a column about groundwater I submitted to them about a month ago. They rejected the first version, I don’t know why, so I resubmitted with some of the sharper comments omitted. (Those comments are in my blog posts, look in the groundwater section). They didn’t believe many of my claims, so I submitted source material, and they also contacted the City of Ashland and the Thornburgh Resort developers to confirm that I was telling the truth. To be honest, this can be frustrating, but I do appreciate their fact checking and adherence to journalistic principals. We need a lot more of that.

There has been a lot of talk in various forums about domestic wells going dry. A recent post on NextDoor stated, “Just a heads up neighbors. I live near Barr Rd. and Cline falls. My well just went dry. My well is about 450 ft.” A response from a person in Tumalo was, “Mine and all neighbors wells have all gone dry too.” Another comment was, “I spoke to one of the larger well and pump providers in C. O. and they have been getting multiple calls per day the last 2 weeks on domestic wells. I am sire not every one is dry but that s still a huge rate.” (sic) This sort of talk has been popping for a couple of years. So, I spent some time on the Oregon Water Resources Department well report mapping tool to try to get some real data for Deschutes County.

On May 4^th, Deschutes County Commissioner Phil Chang held a virtual town hall meeting titled “Improving Drought Resiliency in the Deschutes Basin”.  I commend Commissioner Chang’s concern with water but found his talk troubling. 

Part 2 of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s series on groundwater depletion is now available. Local anglers should take note: Ana Reservoir and Ana River are in peril of going dry from excessive pumping by hay farmers in nearby Christmas Valley. The Oregon Water Resources Department is aware of this but is not taking action to prevent it. As noted in the article, “State regulators don’t track how much water Fort Rock basin farmers use. About 99% of the wells in the area aren’t required to measure and report what they take out of the ground”. Worse, these farmers are essentially exporting water when they sell their hay to international markets. Of course, water is owned by all Oregonians, but we are not all getting benefits. It’s no wonder why a member of the public recently stated in a OWRD Commission meeting that the agency’s actions are “criminal”.

Oregon Public Broadcasting published the first of a series of articles on groundwater yesterday. It is well worth reading. As many have been saying for a long time, Oregon’s water, which is owned by all of us, is horribly mismanaged by our government. I hope the rest of the series is as revealing as this first installment.

The Deschutes County Planning Commission is currently examining water issues in preparation for the Comprehensive Plan Update (Deschutes 2040), which will be initiated in Spring 2022. Here’s my post about their first water panel presentation which occurred on February 24th. Today I sent commission members an email with my comments about this meeting and suggested actions. You can make comments by sending an email to PlanningCommission@deschutes.org. Keep reading to see my comments.

At the recent Deschutes County Planning Commission meeting on water, Kyle Gorman of the Oregon Water Resources Department showed a new graph. It is from an OWRD water monitoring well between Bend and Redmond, east of the intersection of Highway 97 and 61st Street. It’s a new 700 feet well, completed late January 2020. Between 3/13/2020 and 10/5/2021 it dropped 3.47 feet! That’s a huge decline in only 19 months, and people tell me I am being overly dramatic when I say we are in a water crisis. You can see all the data here.

On December 23, 2021, the Oregon Water Resources Department sent the final version of their 5-year review of the Deschutes Basin Groundwater Mitigation Program to the state legislature.  As expected, little was changed in this widely criticized and often misleading document.  As you can see in the attachments to the report, significant objections were submitted by other state agencies, the Tribes, NGOs, and individual citizens.  Many of these objections have been raised and ignored by OWRD for the entire time the DBGMP has been in place.  They portray themselves to the legislature as successfully executing their duties while Central Oregon continues to suffer from lack of effective water management. Such is the nature of government. For more on this topic, see the Groundwater category on the right.

Here’s an email I sent to Oregon Water Resources Department Commissioners today following their meeting last Friday. In a prior life I spent time as an executive and board member in the private sector and always tried to be cognizant of how information was filtered and presented – what board members hear is not always what they should hear. Perhaps the OWRD Commissioners will consider my thoughts, but I’m not holding my breath.

I spent the day watching the OWRD Commission meeting which was largely devoted to groundwater issues, including a review of the Deschutes Basin Groundwater Mitigation Program.  It was frustrating at best.  OWRD acknowledges that both groundwater and surface water are over appropriated throughout the state but that 70% of all new groundwater applications are routinely approved even with the knowledge that withdrawals are already lowering water tables, causing domestic wells to go dry, and negatively impacting surface water.  OWRD is now saying they need to start looking into this.  START?  One public commenter stated that their well has gone dry due to nearby over pumping and that OWRD’s behavior on this issue has been “criminal”.  

For what it’s worth, here are the comments I submitted today regarding the 5-year review of the Deschutes Basin Groundwater Mitigation Program. Here’s a post I made earlier this month for background. Comments are due by August 25.

The Deschutes Basin Groundwater Mitigation Program controls how much groundwater can be pumped out of the ground for municipal, agricultural, manufacturing, and other uses.  Written into law in 1995 and first implemented in 2002, the Mitigation Program established a cap of 200 CFS (cubic feet per second) of new groundwater rights and requires that most withdrawals be “mitigated” by new surface flows from another source.  After 20 years, there is still approximately 20 CFS left in the cap.  By statute, every 5 years the Oregon Water Resources Department is required to submit their review of the program, including the consideration of public comments.  That review is currently underway with comments due by August 25, 2021.  Comments can be made to Sarah Henderson, OWRD Flow Restoration Program Coordinator, at sarah.a.henderson@oregon.gov.

This is a hugely complex and contentious issue, but one that has been, and will continue to be, exceptionally impactful on all Central Oregonians.  It will weigh heavily on long term population growth, local agriculture, recreation, and the health of fish and wildlife.  Keep reading for more.