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The long tentacles of an irrigation pivot spray water over an alfalfa field.
(Mark Graves/Staff)
Gov. Kate Brown's recommended budget includes money for a new team of researchers to study underground water sources in Oregon.
If approved, the additional $1.8 million requested for the study means the state would effectively double its capacity to perform groundwater research, adding a second team of people to review the resource every five years.
The governor's recommendation, released Thursday, comes after a yearlong investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive in August detailed longstanding issues surrounding how the state manages permits given to farmers to tap into aquifers. The state has overseen an explosion of wells in recent decades with little research on how much water is available in the subterranean network that crisscrosses the state.
"Some groundwater aquifers in Oregon are no longer capable of sustaining additional development and drought conditions that have been affecting parts of the state for several years are likely to continue to occur more frequently than in the past," the governor's budget said. "This makes understanding the capacity of water basins to support current and proposed uses increasingly important."
The Oregonian/OregonLive discovered that Harney Valley was one of nine key agricultural areas in the eastern part of the state where ranchers are allowed to pump more than is available underground. Permitted withdrawals in that basin surpassed 96 billion gallons a year, while a 1968 study showed precipitation returned just 85 billion gallons a year to the basin.
Today, farmers can legally draw nearly 1 trillion gallons of water a year from the estimated 400,000 wells across the state and largely don't have to disclose their total water consumption. The federal government last studied the underground aquifer system decades ago, but the state has since handed out water rights to farmers without knowing how much groundwater is available.
Brown's budget calls for an overall 9 percent increase in funding for the Water Resources Department, bringing its total spending to $118.6 million. The plan includes hiring five new field workers to help address the "increasing need to understand water conditions throughout the state."
That increase amounts to doubling the state's capacity for groundwater studies. An existing team is researching the Harney Valley basin and is expected to finish its study by 2020.
Conservation groups reacted to Brown's budget with a mix of encouragement and desire for more action. They were heartened by the uptick in spending despite the estimated $1.7 billion budget shortfall lawmakers must address when they meet next February.
"Starting one additional five-year groundwater basin study this biennium is not enough to manage our water needs as a state," said Stacey Malstrom, spokeswoman for the Oregon Environmental Council. She said the proposal was a step in the right direction. "There are many parts of the state that currently have limited information and known issues where we can use targeted data collection and analysis now to start making smart decisions."
Adam Meyer, the Oregon League of Conservation Voters' budget specialist, said the state's coalition of environmental groups is "excited" to see an increase in the proposed budget. "This is an important investment now that will help us plan for a future with undoubtedly many unpredictable and challenging climate impacts," he said in an email.
But the conservation coalition also wants to see more water basins studied.
Kimberley Priestley, senior policy analyst with WaterWatch, said the budget is a clear indication that the issue of groundwater availability and The Oregonian/OregonLive's reporting caught Brown's attention.
But it doesn't take Oregon as far as it needs to go. "The state needs to be thinking about how to sustain groundwater studies and gather groundwater data and better manage groundwater into the future," she said.
-- Andrew Theen
atheen@oregonian.com
503-294-4026
@andrewtheen