Public hearings set on Upper Basin well regulation

The first hearing will be at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21 at OWRD’s office at 725 Summer St., NE, Suite A, Room 124 in Salem, with the second hearing from 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26 in the Mt. Scott Room at Oregon Institute of Technology.

Surface water and groundwater in the Klamath Basin are managed based on prior appropriation, where junior water right holders are shutoff to meet the call of a senior water right holder in times of insufficient supply. Similarly, junior groundwater rights can be regulated off to provide water to senior water rights, including surface water rights where there is evidence of hydraulic connection.

Beginning in the 2000s, reports from collected data documented a hydraulic connection between surface water and groundwater. As regulation of surface water rights began in the basin in 2013, efforts to find a compromise to regulation began to include groundwater. As a result, the 2014 Upper Klamath Basin Comprehensive Agreement (UKBCA) addressed water management in the area off the the Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Project, including groundwater regulation. In December 2017, the agreement was terminated. Regulation under the existing statewide rule has resulted in litigation, prompting basin specific interim rules.

The current proposed rule change would establish procedures for control of groundwater uses to protect senior surface water rights in the Upper Klamath basin, while longer term water management in the area is developed. The proposed rules are intended to be in effect until March 1, 2021 when more comprehensive rules are expected to be adopted after significant Basin input.

A notice of the proposed rulemaking is available at https://bit.ly/2G6OIaE.

Written comments may be submitted to Racquel Rancier, Senior Policy Coordinator, Oregon Water Resources Department, 725 Summer St., NE, Suite A, Salem, OR 97301-1271; Fax to 503-986-0903 attn. Racquel Rancier; or email to racquel.r.rancier@oregon.gov.