Support Oregon Water Partnership’s Bill Senate Bill 427

Trout Unlimited and allies in the Oregon Water Partnership have a bill in the Oregon Senate this session and with it, we have an opportunity to close a harmful regulatory loophole in Oregon's water transfer laws which allows old water rights to serve new uses, move to new diversion points, or change the place of use without any environmental review, which effectively nullifies Oregon's ability to protect instream values on hundreds of streams across the state. 

Senate Bill 427 would close a loophole in Oregon’s state water law that can have great detrimental effects on fish, water quality, recreation, and scenic values. Today, if someone applies to the Oregon Water Resources Department (WRD), the agency conducts a relatively thorough “public interest” analysis. No such review occurs for proposed changes to water rights (called a “transfer”), which include proposed changes to (1) point of diversion, (2) place of use, and (3) type of use.

The long and short of this is that someone can move the point of diversion where a canal draws water from a stream (potentially to a place far upstream, dewatering a stream reach) without WRD conducting any analysis of what harm that might cause.

SB 427 would require WRD to assess whether a change to a water right would diminish streamflow. If it would, WRD would deny the application. The bill’s chief sponsor is Senator Floyd Prozanski of Eugene. It’s expected that the bill will receive a public hearing in the Senate Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday, 2/25, at 1-2:30pm. The portal for written testimony is always open for 48 hours following the start of a related meeting.

For more information, see this post from WaterWatch of Oregon.

To submit your written testimony now, follow this link.