It's St. Patrick's Day, and the color most associated with today is green - also the color of money in the USA. Water, too.
Yesterday I stumbled upon another Oregon groundwater tale of woe, this time proffered by Oregon Public Broadcasting: Race to the bottom: How big business took over Oregon’s first protected aquifer by Emily Cureton Cook. I started reading but my mind drifted back to 2016 when The Oregonian published an excellent tome entitled Draining Oregon by Kelly House and Mark Graves. The latter is more comprehensive than the Cook report but both are excellent and pull no punches. House and Graves go in depth (no pun intended) in such a way that only a major newspaper can.
Although Cook's article uses the Cow Valley 'water rights grab' by a San Francisco-based hedge fund and subsequent takeover of Oregon's first protected aquifer as a focal point, both articles take the Oregon Water Resources Department to the woodshed, deservedly so. OWRD has some really good, conscientious people but the leadership is lacking. I was saddened to learn that Harmony Burright, who worked on an OWRD-funded project in the Harney Basin, has left to work for Rep. Mark Owens (R- Crane) She is a keeper and Rep. Owens is lucky to have her.
So I will simply repeat the takeaways from my blog post (7 is new) of 2016:
Here we go:
1) Err on the side of caution when issuing permits.
2) Utilize graduate/undergraduate students from Oregon and other universities to do thesis work in the affected areas and elsewhere. Yes, it will cost money but OWRD will get more bang for the buck.
3) Charge each of the 17,000 irrigation and other large-capacity (municipal and industrial) wells $150 per year and put this money towards groundwater work. Owners of the so-called ‘exempt wells’ - those not requiring a water right and limited to 15,000 gallons per day (about 16 acre-feet per year) - would pay $20 per year. There are about 150,000 of these wells so their effects can be locally significant. No one really knows how much these wells use – they are not metered.
4) Meter all large-capacity (irrigation, M&I, etc.) wells.
5) Refuse to permit wells drilled in anticipation of receiving permits.
6) Enlist the support of the state's 'movers and shakers' (or 'shovers and makers') to initiate a statewide study of Oregon's groundwater resources.
7) Avoid the accumulation of groundwater rights by entities whose motives (hoarding, etc.) are suspect.
A Modest Proposal
I will offer to teach a 3 to 4 hour 'Groundwater 101' course in Salem for legislators at the start of the 2017 session. No charge. I'll let some people in Salem know about my offer.This offer conflates nicely with the Groundwater Visibility Initiative and Oregon State University's land-grant university status.
This course will not solve the problems so cogently described by The Oregonian but will help our state's lawmakers better understand groundwater so they can make better decisions and choices.
No one took me up on the teaching offer. I did the lecture for a group of locals in Burns and I helped out on the OWRD-sponsored Harney Basin groundwater planning project. The 10-hour RT from Corvallis took its toll after a while.
If I'm still around in 2028 I suspect I can use this post again. I am skeptical that the groundwater situation will change for the better.
Kudos to Emily Cureton Cook, Kelly House and Mark Graves. Thank heavens for journalists like them.
Enjoy.
"Cry me a river, build a bridge, then get over it." - Unknown
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