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The Department has created a web portal containing
information about calls (requests) for water made by senior water users in
the Klamath Basin. The site contains the stream location, status of calls for
water received, whether regulation for water distribution has occurred, and
the date of priority to which junior water rights are not allowed to be
diverting water. Click
here for details.
The Klamath Tribes hold determined water right claims with a
priority date of time immemorial, making them the most senior water users in
the Upper Klamath Basin. The determined claims allow the Tribes to provide
for a healthy riparian habitat. The Department has a web page with information
on the Klamath Tribes’ instream determined claims, which displays a graph for
the water year, and shows the current mean daily streamflow along with past
streamflow measurements made by Department staff.
This information will help water users know when water is
available for diversion, based on whether the senior tribal determined claim
is met. Please note: the graph does not display whether regulation is in
effect due to calls for water from other senior users. Click
here for details.
Wood River Update
In early May, the Oregon Water Resources Department (Department)
regulated the Wood River and its tributaries for all water uses back through
1864. On May 31, 15 of the Wood River area water user entities filed legal
action in the form of a Petition for Judicial Review in Marion County Circuit
Court to stop enforcement of the regulation. Under Oregon law, the filing of a
Petition for Judicial Review of a Water Resources Department order
automatically stays (stops) enforcement of that order.
While the matter goes through the court system, the Department can
lift the stay and continue regulation if the Department finds that “substantial
public harm” will result from the stay. The Department’s Director has found
that the Wood River stay causes substantial public harm to the Upper Klamath
Basin water user community, because it results in selective enforcement of
water rights, leading some junior water right holders to receive water instead
of senior users. This undermines the State’s priority-based water management
system, and the rights of senior water right holders.
The stay also results in substantial public harm to the Klamath Tribes
community, which has the most senior water rights in the basin. The Tribes’
water rights provide for productive fish, plant and wildlife habitat by
protecting instream flows. The orders denying the stay do not affect the
petitioner’s right, if any, to substantive review of the regulation orders in
circuit court.
Background and Process for Water Distribution
Like most western states, Oregon follows the “prior
appropriation” doctrine of water use, often referred to as “first in time,
first in right.” This means that when there is insufficient water to satisfy
all water rights, water users with senior priority dates make a “call” to
receive water, and users with junior water rights are shut off until the
rights of the senior users making the call are satisfied.
Prior to distributing water from junior users to senior
users, the Department’s watermaster staff make field measurements to validate
the call and determine whether there is adequate water at the senior right’s point
of diversion to satisfy the senior user’s water right demand. Once the calls
are validated, the Department must begin distributing water from junior
(newer) water right diversions to benefit the senior users.
Watermaster staff will visit water users to inform them
that water distribution is occurring, and to provide information on how to
track the status of the regulation.
Water distribution notification can also occur by postal mailing of a notice
of regulation, which requires junior water users to shut off their diversions,
pumps, or wells. This process occurs across much of Oregon every year.
Watermaster staff follow up with field checks to individual points of
diversion to ensure that water use is in compliance with regulation orders.
Water users who have questions about the regulation for water
distribution should contact the Klamath Falls Watermaster’s office at (541)
883-4182.
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