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Groundwater Allocation Rulemaking

The Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) is updating its rules for evaluating and issuing new groundwater rights in a manner that protects existing water uses and manages Oregon's finite water resources sustainably.

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More information about this rulemaking:
To receive updates about this rulemaking:


Public Comment, Public Hearings, & Pre-Hearing Information Sessions – April 4, April 18, May 16, & May 21, 2024

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The public comment period is now open. You may submit comments in writing or attend a public hearing to comment in person.  Written comments must be received by May 31, 2024, at 5 p.m.​​ 

Written comments may be submitted to: 

Laura Hartt
Oregon Water Resources Department
725 Summer Street NE, Suite A
Salem, OR 97301  



Public Hearing Dates, Times and Locations 

CENTRAL OREGON

Date: April 4, 2024
Time: 7-9 p.m.
Place: Deschutes Services Building, 1300 NW Wall Street, Bend, OR 97703   

A pre-hearing information-only session will be offered from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Both the information session and the hearing were recorded and are available below: 


EASTERN OREGON 

Date: April 18, 2024
Time: 7-9 p.m.
Place: Eastern Oregon University, Hoke Union Building, Room 339, 1 University Blvd., La Grande, OR 97850  

A pre-hearing information-only session will be offered from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Both the information session and the hearing will be recorded and posted online here within 48 hours. 


SOUTHERN OREGON

Date: May 16, 2024 
Time: 7-9 p.m. 
Place: Jackson County Auditorium, 7520 Table Rock Rd., Central Point, OR 97502  

A pre-hearing information-only session will be offered from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Both the information session and the hearing will be recorded and posted online here within 48 hours. 

Central Point Public Hearing Recording (coming soon)
Central Point Information Session Recording (coming soon) 

SALEM AND VIRTUAL

Date: May 21, 2024
Time: 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Place: North Mall Office Building, Room 124, 725 Summer St. NE, Salem, OR 97301 

This meeting will be hybrid, hosted on Zoom and in person. ​

A pre-hearing information-only session will be offered from 5:30-6:30 p.m., hosted on Zoom and in person. 

Zoom registration link (Pre-Hearing Info Session)
This meeting will be hybrid, hosted on Zoom and in person.​ 

Both the information session and the hearing will be recorded and posted online here within 48 hours. 

Salem Public Hearing Recording (coming soon)
Salem Information Session Recording (coming soon) ​

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 2023-2024 Rules Advisory Committee Meeting Materials
​Current OWRD Rules 
Current OWRD Statutes  
Rules Advisory Committee (RAC) Member Roster​​ 

Current Groundwater Allocation Process Flowchart - Fig 1 
Current Groundwater Allocation Process Flowchart – Fig 2 
References

Barlow, P.M., and Leake, S.A., 2012, Streamflow depletion by wells—Understanding and managing the effects of groundwater pumping on streamflow (U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1376).

Bredehoeft, J., 2011, Hydrologic trade-offs in conjunctive use management, (Ground Water 49(4):  468-475)​. 

Cooper, R.M., 2002, Determining Surface Water Availability in Oregon​ (OWRD, Open File Report SW 02-002).

Gannett, M.W., et. ​al., Pischel, E.M., and La Marche, J.L., 2017, Simulation of groundwater and surface-water flow in the upper Deschutes Basin, Oregon (U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5097).

Gleeson et al., 2020, Global Groundwater Sustainability, Resources, and Systems in the Anthropocene (Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science, 48: 431-463). ​

Herrera, N.B., et. al.​, 2014, Simulation of groundwater flow and the interaction of groundwater and surface water in the Willamette Basin and central Willamette Subbasin, Oregon​ (U.S. ​​Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5136).

Jenkins, C.T., 1968, Computation of rate and volume of stream depletion by wells​ (U.S. Geological Survey publication: Techniques of Water-Resources Investigations of the United States Geological Survey, Book 4, Chapter D1).

Leake, S.A., and Barlow, P.M., 2013, Understanding and​​ Managing the Effects of Groundwater Pumping on Streamflow (U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2013-3001).

Oregon Environmental Council & Oregon Water Futures, 2022, State of Water Justice in Oregon: A Primer on How Oregon Water Infrastructure Challenges Affect Frontline Communities Across the State.

Oregon Secretary of State, 2023, Advisory Report: State Leadership Must Take Action to Protect Water Security for All Oregonians (Report 2023-04).  

Oregon Water Resources Department, 2015, Oregon Statewide Long-Term Water Demand Forecast (OWRD White Paper). ​

​Pilz, D. et al., 2023, The Business Case for Investing in Water in Oregon​ (White Paper prepared for OWRD). ​

Scandella, B. and Iverson, J., 2021, Oregon Groundwater Resource Concerns Assessment (OWRD White Paper).​​​

Theis, C.V., 1940, The Source of Water Derived From Wells; Essential Factors Controlling the Response of an Aquifer to Development (published by American Society of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering (p. 277-280)).

Winter, T.C. et al., 1998, Ground Water and Surface Water: A Single Resource​ (U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1139).

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​RAC Meeting 5 Agenda 

RAC Meeting 5 Presentation​ 

RAC Meeting 5 YouTube Recording​ 

 

RAC Meeting 4 Draft Summary

RAC Meeting 4 Comments

RAC Meeting 4 Comment Summary and Responses

 

Division 8 draft rules (080223) 

Division 9 draft rules (080223)

Division 300 draft rules (080223) 

Division 400 draft rules (080223)​ 

Division 410 draft rules (080223)​

 

RAC Meeting 5 Summary​

 

RAC Member Provided References  

Ahmadalipour, A. et al., 2016, Centennial drought outlook over the CONUS using NASA-NEX downscaled climate ensemble (International Journal of Climatology 37: 2477-2491). 

Aldous, A.R. & Bach, L.B., 2014, Hydro-ecology of groundwater-dependent ecosystems: applying basic science to groundwater management (Hydrological Sciences Journal 59 (3-4): 530-544). 

de Graaf, I.E.M et al., 2019, Environmental flow limits to global groundwater pumping (Nature 574: 90-94). 

Jasechko, S. et al., 2021, Widespread potential loss of streamflow into underlying aquifers across the USA (Nature 591: 391-395). 

Lite, K.E. et al., 2022, Understanding Upper Deschutes Basin Groundwater Levels​ 

                (White Paper prepared for Central Oregon Cities Organization (COCO) by GSI Water Solutions, Inc.) 

Scheff, J. et al., 2022, Why do the global warming responses of land-surface models and climate dryness metrics disagree? (Earth’s Future 10(8): e2022EF002814). 

Waibel, M.S. et al., 2013, Spatial variability of the response to climate change in regional groundwater systems – Examples from simulations in the Deschutes Basin, Oregon 

                 (Journal of Hydrology 486: 187-201). ​

 




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RAC Member Provided References 

Abatzoglou, J.T. & Ficklin, D.L., 2017, Climatic and physiographic controls of spatial variability in surface water balance over the contiguous United States using the Budyko relationship (Water Resources Research 53(9): 7630–7643).  

Alley, W.M., and Leake, S.A., 2004, The Journey from Safe Yield to Sustainability (Ground Water 42(1):12-16). 

Ban, Z. et al., 2020, Understanding the asymmetry of annual streamflow responses to seasonal warming in the Western United States (Water Resources Research 56(12): e2020WR027158).  

Bass, B. et al., 2023, Aridification of Colorado River Basin's snowpack regions has driven water losses despite ameliorating effects of vegetation (Water Resources Research 59(7): e2022WR033454). 

Hamed, K.H. and Rao, A.R., 1998, A modified Mann-Kendall trend test for autocorrelated data (Journal of Hydrology 204(1-4):182-196). 

Helsel, D.R. et al., 2020, Statistical methods in water resources (U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods, 4-A3, v. 1.1). 

Mankin, J.S. et al., 2019, Mid-latitude freshwater availability reduced by projected vegetation responses to climate change (Nature Geoscience 12: 983–988).  

Mankin, J. S. et al., 2018, Blue water trade-offs with vegetation in a CO2-enriched climate (Geophysical Research Letters 45(7): 3115–3125).  

Mankin, J. S. et al., 2017, The curious case of projected twenty-first-century drying but greening in the American West (Journal of Climate 30(21): 8689–8710).  

Massmann, A. et al., 2019, When does vapor pressure deficit drive or reduce evapotranspiration? (Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 11(10): 3305–3320).  

Mote, P.W. et al., 2018, Dramatic declines in snowpack in the western US. (npj Climate and Atmospheric Science 1(2)).  

Mucken, A. and Bateman, B. (eds.), 2017, Oregon’s 2017 Integrated Water Resources Strategy (Oregon Water Resources Department. Salem, OR). 

Scheff, J. et al., 2022, Why do the global warming responses of land-surface models and climatic dryness metrics disagree? (Earth's Future 10(8): e2022EF002814).  

Schwalm, C. et al., 2020, RCP8.5 tracks cumulative CO2 emissions (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117(33): 19656-19657).  

Winter, T. C. et al., 1998, Ground water and surface water: A single resource (U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1139).  

Yang, H. et al., 2018, Changing the retention properties of catchments and their influence on runoff under climate change (Environmental Research Letters 13(9): 094019).  

Yue, S., et al., 2002, The influence of autocorrelation on the ability to detect trend in hydrological series (Hydrological Processes 16(9):1807-1829). 

Yue, S. and Wang, C., 2004, The Mann-Kendall test modified by effective sample size to detect trend in serially correlated hydrological series (Water Resources Management 18:201-218). 

Zhang, Y. et al., 2022, Increasing sensitivity of dryland vegetation greenness to precipitation due to rising atmospheric CO2 (Nature Communications 13: 4875 (2022)).  

Zhang, X.-Y. et al., 2022, The compensatory CO2 fertilization and stomatal closure effects on runoff projection from 2016–2099 in the western United States (Water Resources Research 58: e2021WR030046).  ​