Water issues could make big waves in Central Oregon

Ownership of water has always been a critical issue in Central Oregon, as evidenced by the recent House passage of House Bill 3298. The text of HB 3298 states that the person who has title to the property described by the water right owns that right.

However, the overall water question in the Deschutes Basin is not simply a matter of who owns the water rights; it is compounded by issues not addressed in the bill.

"The crux of the water problem in the greater Central Oregon area has to do with a minimum flow level of water into the lower Deschutes River," said Lynn Lounsbury, utilities manager at Black Butte Ranch.

Lounsbury is also distribution manager of the Indian Meadow Water Company and district water manager for the Tollgate Property Owners Association.

"The middle section of the Deschutes River, from Bend to Lake Billy Chinook, suffers from low flow during the irrigation season," said Lounsbury. "None of the river actually runs dry. However, the middle section is seriously short of water and is a major concern.

"Much thought and effort is going into the mitigation efforts to increase the flow in this section. It naturally follows that increased flow in the middle section would also increase the flow into the lower 100 miles," Lounsbury said.

'Mitigate' is a relatively infrequently used word meaning "to make less harsh, severe or painful," according to Webster.

"Ground water studies have established a hydraulic link between springs which flow into the lower Deschutes River and the aquifer from which Tollgate, Black Butte Ranch and other ground water consumers here pump their water," Lounsbury said.

"Therefore, water managers, the water resources people, have concluded that ground water extraction from the aquifers in the Deschutes Basin may impact flows in the river, particularly the lower 100 miles of the river," he said.

"The water resource managers have proposed rules, which are now being challenged in the courts, that require those with pending ground water applications to mitigate the impact of the ground water they are permitted to withdraw," Lounsbury said.

"The aim of mitigation is to increase surface water flows, gallon for gallon, for each gallon of ground water pumped," he said.

Surface water is defined as streams, springs and rivers. Ground water is under the earth's surface -- aquifers or "underground lakes" reached by wells.

Mitigation may be accomplished in a number of ways: The owner of a well may purchase a farmer's water right to use irrigation water from a stream. The proposed water for irrigation now remains in the stream and the well owner is allowed to extract or pump a like amount of water from his well.

"A more common way to mitigate would be to pay a $250 per acre-foot of water fee pumped from an individual well per year," Lounsbury said.

Such money would then go in to a Mitigation Bank, which was established in 1998 for uses such as lining canals (to prevent leakage or absorption) or other conservation efforts.

It is a common belief locally that there is so much water underground it is immeasurable.

That's not really the case.

"Geo-hydrologists do have a good knowledge of where water lies underground," Lounsbury said. "What we now need is a study to try to establish the quantity of water in the Deschutes River Basin aquifers, or at the very least to determine if current ground extractions are influencing river flow volumes."

Ownership of the water below ground has been a point of contention for decades. HB 3298 is intended to clarify that issue. Large land owners, farmers, golf course operators, residential subdivisions, water irrigation district managers and the like are heavily involved in the dispute over water ownership, mitigation and the selling of water rights.

There are different views.

"Environmentalists say that the Water Resources Department has not gone far enough in limiting ground water withdrawal," Lounsbury said. "The environmentalists are going to court to try and force the water department to adopt more restrictive rules than we have now.

"Others would argue that the department has acted prematurely without any scientific evidence that tapping the underground water reservoirs is impacting river flow."

According to Lounsbury, the Water Resources Department will not tolerate water usage over the amount authorized in each permit.

He said that rather than speculate about what action would be taken if such permits are surpassed, "I think we all ... should strive to use as little water as possible. Then we won't have to worry about exceeding our limit anywhere."