MARK GRAVES/STAFF Rolling irrigation pipe stands ready in a Dufur Valley field, farm country along Fifteenmile Creek south of The Dalles. In Oregon, the amount of water landowners are allowed to extract statewide totals nearly 1 trillion gallons annually – enough to fill 150 million tanker trucks. An analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive has found farmers in a quarter of eastern Oregon, the driest part of the state, are allowed to pump more underground water each year than rains deposit. DRAINING OREGON
By KELLY HOUSE and MARK GRAVES The Oregonian/OregonLive
WATCHDOG August 26, 2016 Water giveaway threatens economic chaos and hurts wildlife
By KELLY HOUSE and MARK GRAVES The Oregonian/OregonLive
regon is helping farmers drain the state’s reserves, known as aquifers, can dry up house- underground reservoirs to grow cash hold wells and saddle farmers with huge costs Ocrops in the desert, throwing sensitive to pump from ever-greater depths. It also jeop- ecosystems out of balance and fueling an agri- ardizes 652 species of sensitive plants and cultural boom that cannot be sustained, The animals. Victims include federally protected Oregonian/OregonLive has found. salmon and steelhead, whose recovery has Managers with the Oregon Water Resources failed to materialize despite a 25-year efort Department have handed out rights to pump that’s cost taxpayers billions. water while pleading ignorance about how The Oregonian/OregonLive reviewed hun- much was actually available. They have dreds of documents, interviewed dozens of approved new pumping for irrigation even as ranchers, farmers and water experts, and ana- their own scientists warned it could hurt the lyzed three databases covering thousands of water table, interviews and state records show. water rights and wells. The amount of water Oregon farmers can Among the fndings: legally extract now totals nearly 1 trillion gal- • Farmers in a quarter of eastern Oregon, lons a year — enough to fll 150 million tanker the driest part of the state, are allowed to pump trucks. more underground water each year than rains More than 5,000 farms in Oregon’s $5.4 bil- and snows deposit. It’s one rough indicator of lion agricultural industry rely on well water to the mismatch between supply and demand. survive. Nearly a million Oregonians need wells The shortfall was 49 billion gallons a year in for water they drink. the Willow Creek Basin of Morrow County. In The unending churn of water comes with southeastern Oregon’s Harney Valley, it was 11 consequences. billion gallons. Overpumping Oregon’s underground • It’s virtually impossible for the state to
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 2 of 41 BETH NAKAMURA/STAFF “Every time I get a wild idea, I just go out and look at that pump,” said Bill Doherty, a Morrow County farmer whose well had to be shut of. “But you can’t live with that bitterness. You just go on.” When the state moved in to shut of wells near Butter Creek and stem groundwater pumping that had lowered the groundwater table dozens of feet, Bill Doherty and his neighbors fought back. The farmers sued the state three times over its attempt to curb their use of groundwater to irrigate crops, and won twice.
enforce its pumping limits. On all but a frac- water. Oregon, in contrast, will deny permits tion of Oregon’s roughly 400,000 wells, owners only in cases where the harm would be consid- have no obligation to disclose their actual water ered “substantial.” consumption. They are on an honor system not to exceed their allowance. Oregon water resources ofcials defend • Lawmakers routinely budget no money at their decisions, saying all western states face all for studies to expand Oregon’s spotty knowl- challenges managing water. The regulators edge of groundwater supplies. At current fund- note that federal geologists completed the only ing levels, the work won’t fnish until 2096. statewide study of Oregon aquifers decades • Other parts of the country set a higher ago. They say it’s hard to accurately keep tabs bar than Oregon for granting pumping rights. on the underground supply without more Washington state, for example, won’t allow money for stafng and research. a new well to be tapped if it could cause any “We’re obligated to evaluate the appli- harm to a stream that’s already hurting for cations, we’re obligated to make a decision
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 3 of 41 timely, and then we have to defend that deci- sion as well,” said Doug Woodcock, deputy direc- tor of the Oregon Water Resources Department. “And I think it would be difcult to close down all permit issuance in the state of Oregon until we had all of the informa- tion available for every- where.” Giving away water with abandon has failed Oregonians repeatedly. In river basin after river basin, ofcials over the decades took no action until aquifers had dwin- dled measurably. Regu- lators put on the brakes MARK FRIESEN AND MARK GRAVES/STAFF and farmers, many of whom had bet on water rights for their liveli- hoods, lost out. In the Umatilla Basin during the last 1980s and early 1990s, dozens of farmers lost access to their promised water under state orders. Farm values tanked. “With one signature, how would you like to have $400,000 wiped of your net worth?” said Bill Doherty, a Morrow County farmer who sued the state over restrictions that took half his water supply and left him with $250,000 in debt on an unused well. Larry Campbell and his family could see the signs of overpumping years before the state stepped in. Campbell’s father was a dryland wheat farmer in the Hermiston area all his life. But ful new wells soaked 2,000 acres of beans, bar- Campbell’s neighbors in the 1970s started turn- ley, alfalfa and safower on the Campbell farm. ing to irrigated crops that can be several times It wasn’t long before their wells lost steam. more proftable, and he joined in. Two power- Rather than chasing the water deeper, Camp-
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 4 of 41 bell, now 77, and his brothers chose to “get The water resources agency has hesitated outta the fght.” They sold the farm. to say no to irrigators in the wake of threats The state’s pumping restrictions in the from lawmakers and pressure from industry, Umatilla were supposed to be evaluated every according to agency critics and former employ- fve years. But regulators rarely have bothered. ees. Conservationists say that rather than being Oregon’s water agency can ofer proof of doing a watchdog, the department is a revolving door such an evaluation only once in the past two with the water users it regulates. decades. And the water table continues to fall, Some irrigators are so confdent their per- records show. mits will be approved, they sink wells frst and “Maybe at some point, all the wells will dry fle the paperwork later. Andy Root, a Harney up, and everybody loses and goes back to dry- County rancher who began pumping without land,” Campbell said. “It’s still good dirt.” state approval, said it has long been common practice in the area. He’s since applied to obtain “A pro-development approach” a water permit years after he began pumping. Yet farmers and ranchers pay a price for the The Oregonian/OregonLive analysis used a state’s failure to make hard choices. Oregon’s basic measure of the mismatch between supply water agency has clamped down on groundwa- and demand, comparing permitted use with ter use in seven basins since the 1950s, chang- annual replenishment. ing course after empowering well owners to The Oregon Water Resources Department begin draining down an aquifer. labeled it “an overly simplistic and incomplete The newest trouble spot is in Harney view.” Yet the same state agency, with some County, site of this year’s armed standof at refnements, relied on similar calculations to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Records justify halting new permits in the Harney Val- show state ofcials feared years ago that irri- ley last year. gation wells in the Harney Valley might be The new fndings echo what environmen- draining Malheur Lake, a vital stopover for talists have long warned: that Oregon is giving threatened migratory birds. Yet the state kept away water at an unsustainable rate. issuing permits, more than 100 in the past “We’re basically writing checks we know seven years. Now, state ofcials believe they we don’t have money in our account to cover,” gave away too much. There’s talk of the state said Joe Whitworth, president of The Freshwa- shutting down ranchers’ newly dug wells, a ter Trust, a Portland-based conservation group. move that would have serious economic rami- “Eventually, they’re going to bounce.” fcations. Consider how regulators evaluate applica- Oregon’s failures aren’t unique. Water tions to pump. A state reviewer flls out a form tables are sinking across the West, from Wash- asking whether water is available to support ington to Arizona. A study last year found a prospective well. Forms marked “cannot be humans have overexploited many of the determined” routinely get the go-ahead, a review world’s largest aquifers. of hundreds of permit applications shows. Agriculture is the biggest water guzzler by “It’s certainly a pro-development far. In Oregon, it accounts for more than 80 per- approach,” said Ivan Gall, who oversaw the cent of all use. Oregon Water Resources Department’s ground- Our enormous demand will only grow. water program until moving to a diferent job in Global trade in Oregon beef, cherries, cheese the agency this spring. and other goods is driving farm development
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 5 of 41 MARK GRAVES/STAFF State scientists years ago documented their belief that a well-pumping boom in the Harney Valley could be afecting Malheur Lake, a vital stopover for migratory birds. But their supervisors permitted even more pumping. Now, regulators with the Oregon Water Resources Department have clamped down on well development in the valley while they study its impacts on the water table. They plan to include the lake in a five-year analysis of the valley’s groundwater system.
across the high desert. At the same time, cli- the underground water supply essential. mate change is forecast to bring more and more Like subterranean sponges, aquifers are droughts like the bone-dry summer of 2015, stores of water that percolate unseen beneath drawing streams down to a trickle and curtail- our feet, flling the spaces between sand, gravel ing fows of rainwater to deep underground and rocks. Rainfall that doesn’t drain into riv- aquifers. ers, evaporate or enter plant roots ends up fl- If Oregon is going to solve its problem with tering into the soil, where it inches toward an overpumping, time is running out. eventual discharge point. The water reemerges as springs that sus- tain lush wetlands in the desert and keep rivers Permanent consequences fowing after the summer snowmelt has tum- To grasp the damage that overpumping can bled out to sea. Fish, wildlife and plants thrive do, it’s important to understand what makes in the cool discharge. Taking water from the
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 6 of 41 subsurface can rob these places and the ani- As cattle sip from the springs, farmers tap mals that live there. ever deeper into aquifers that supply them. “There’s really no such thing as zero-im- Proft in the felds pact groundwater pumping,” said Marshall The lure of proft generates the thirst. With- Gannett, a groundwater scientist with the U.S. out water pumps, the vast deserts of eastern Geological Survey. Oregon could grow little other than dryland Because aquifers fow into streams, inten- wheat. Irrigated crops are far more lucrative. sive well drilling can sap water from owners State regulators more than a century ago of existing wells, while also depriving farmers began issuing rights to directly siphon Oregon’s who need surface water for irrigation. rivers without data to show how much the riv- A falling water table caused springs under- ers could give. Today, irrigators routinely drain neath the Lost River, in the town of Bonanza, streams before all farmers with water rights can to fow backward. The tiny city of Merrill was quench their felds. Many have turned to well forced to truck in water when the aquifer water as a fresh supply. dropped below municipal well pumps in 2010. Today’s irrigation wells bear little resem- Intensive groundwater irrigation was to blame blance to ancient versions, those stone-lined in both cases. holes in the ground with buckets to extract In some Oregon streams, springs are such water. New models are products of modern a vital component to surface water that nearly engineering, capable of pumping gallons per every rife has its origins underground. Such is second from fathoms below and spreading it the case in the Metolius River, which surges out across acres of tilled soil. of the forest foor near the central Oregon town In a typical farm setup, electric motors of Sisters at a near-constant 50,000 gallons per force the water into massive wheeled sprin- minute. klers known as center pivots. Each pivot’s long Cool water seeping in from underground arm protrudes from an anchor at the center of can be a lifesaver for salmon when summer- a feld, orbiting around it in circles up to a half- time river temperatures climb to lethal levels. mile wide. When viewed from an airplane, the But overpumping across Oregon has worsened resulting green felds create the appearance of a the odds for fsh. landscape stamped with bingo markers. Thousands of spring-fed wetlands that dot Landowners gain the right to pump by the state are at risk, as well. These sensitive applying for a permit. It sets an amount that the environments harbor rare plants and insects, holder is entitled to pump on a specifc piece including carnivorous cobra lilies and certain of land. Once owners start pumping, they can caddisfies found only in Oregon. Allison Ald- obtain indefnite rights to the water. Buy the ous, a scientist with The Nature Conservancy, land and you buy the water rights. calls these wetlands “amazing warehouses of Regulators have authorized more than biodiversity.” 17,000 irrigation wells across Oregon, about In some Oregon basins, Aldous said, nearly 1,400 of them since 2000. Every drought brings every spring-fed oasis has been tapped to a bump in drilling, despite construction costs water livestock, often in a way that damages or that can rise into the hundreds of thousands of destroys the wetland. dollars. The water is used to grow sweet cher- “There are best management practices, but ries sold at Portland markets, potatoes fried in based on what we see, those aren’t always fol- fast food restaurants across America and alfalfa lowed,” Aldous said. that feeds dairy cows around the Pacifc Rim.
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 7 of 41
Aquifers under extreme pumping stress Page 9
Obtaining a permit to pump has always costs you nothing but the price of electricity to been simple. Check of some boxes, pay fees pull it to the surface. starting at about $2,000, and you’ll generally However, the state’s understanding of the get a permit by mail within a year. In fact, the underground resource hasn’t kept pace with Water Resources Department counts among its the clamor to tap it. key performance goals “timely service to cus- tomers.” The department strives for 80 percent Information void of water users reporting they received “good” Oregon lawmakers voiced noble intentions or “excellent” service. in 1955 when they created the state’s frst legal After your permit is issued, the water itself
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 8 of 41 protections for the underground water supply, full studies on three. aiming to preserve it for posterity. Not only have such studies been slow in Legislation pushed by Rep. Charles A. coming, they happened in reaction to crisis. Tom, R-Rufus, declared groundwater a pub- Landowners asked for water rights. Regula- lic resource to be allocated on a frst come, frst tors approved them. Only after overuse created served basis. Legislators directed state water conficts did the state compile data to confrm managers to move “as rapidly as possible” to wells were draining aquifers or robbing rivers. measure aquifers beneath all of the state’s 18 For vast stretches of Oregon that scientists drainage basins. have not yet studied, the next best thing is a Six decades later, the state has completed cursory federal survey nearly fve decades old.
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 9 of 41 The 1968 report by the U.S. Geological Survey Studies to establish a basin’s profle cost has not always held up against more thorough $3 million to $5 million and can take about studies of individual basins, sometimes drasti- fve years. They reveal the aquifer’s shape and cally under- or overestimating the water sup- size, its capacity and its “recharge rate,” or how ply. much water seeps in each year. They also tell State ofcials referenced the 1968 estimates regulators where the water comes from and last year in explaining why they halted new where it’s headed. permits across a large swath of Harney County. Lacking more precise estimates of how “We used it because there really wasn’t much pumping aquifers can tolerate, regulators anything else available,” said Gall, the state track water levels in about 1,000 government groundwater manager at the time. and privately owned wells and wait for signs The Oregonian/OregonLive found that the the water table is dropping. Harney Valley was one of nine key agricultural The Oregonian/OregonLive examined 130 areas across eastern Oregon where ranchers are wells east of the Cascades for which long-term allowed to pump more than is available under- data exists. Three-fourths showed declines in ground. recent decades, ranging from a few inches to Permitted withdrawals in the Harney Basin hundreds of feet. total more than 96 billion gallons a year. The Regulators caution that the result is hard to 1968 study shows precipitation adds back only interpret because observation wells are most 85 billion gallons a year. plentiful in places with known groundwater “It’s not like the Harney aquifer is going to problems. be the last one,” said Whitworth, of the Fresh- In parts of eastern Oregon, a dozen obser- water Trust. “We’re overdrafting everywhere vation wells might be the only source of infor- and the state has no ability to track it.” mation in an area the size of Connecticut. A Other eastern Oregon agricultural commu- state push to build more of these wells has nities have begun raising concerns. inched along, with two dozen constructed In a December request for state money, a since 2012. John Day Basin group noted the region’s wells “One of the challenges is, nobody really are losing water at a “noticeable and alarm- measures water in Oregon,” said Todd Jarvis, ing” rate. Concerns have also arisen in the Pow- director of the Institute for Water and Water- der Basin, where Baker County Commissioner sheds at Oregon State University. Mark Bennett sought answers from the state Although the state knows how much irri- after hearing about Harney’s woes. gators are entitled to pump, not everyone who Bennett is the administrator for Unity, a owns a water right uses it fully. Conversely, city with three wells to supply water for its 71 some may be using much more than they are residents. A growing number of neighbors are allowed. looking to dig wells and start cultivating hay. Regulators admit they have no way to “The city doesn’t have any money, so how know either way, because only in the 1990s did would they pay to deepen their wells if these Oregon start requiring owners of large new irri- other folks drilled and sucked all the water gation wells to report how much they pump. down?” Bennett said. Five out of six wells across the state are He said state ofcials told him they would exempt. add the Powder Basin to the list of places in need of new groundwater research.
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 10 of 41 MARK GRAVES/STAFF Harney County landowners are legally entitled to 11 billion gallons more groundwater each year than rains and snows can replace.
Pressure to pump and a fnancing program to help homeowners To some degree, regulators’ hands are tied. deepen wells that had gone dry. The bill never Lawmakers control the Water Resources made it out of committee. Department budget, and dollars to pay for Water resources agency ofcials in the past groundwater research and data have come in at two years have received $550,000 to do a job a trickle. that is expected to cost $45 million to $75 mil- Natural resource concerns frequently get lion. less attention than education, health care and John DeVoe, executive director of the con- social services — issues more visible, more servation group WaterWatch of Oregon, calls it immediate, and viewed as more important to deliberate ignorance on the part of state law- Oregon voters. makers. He said they worry if they fund the “Until there’s a crisis, people will say there’s science, they’ll be forced to acknowledge the no reason to spend the money,” said Rep. Clif limits of Oregon’s water. Bentz, R-Ontario, who last year unsuccessfully The system is “designed, quite intention- lobbied for a statewide examination of aquifers ally, to be unable to make sustainable ground-
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 11 of 41 water management decisions,” DeVoe said. water use say they regularly face of against Enormous public and political pressure to industry lawyers and consultants who once keep the water fowing drives the state’s failure worked for the department. The list of former to regulate groundwater more tightly. employees who have since become consultants When aquifers start drying up, irrigators or attorneys for water users includes a former fle lawsuits. Their elected representatives director, a policy analyst, a senior policy ana- have held budgets hostage and pushed bills lyst and a mid-level manager. to thwart potential crackdowns on water use. “Their attitude for a long time has been to Landowners have threatened violence against view water users as customers, worry about water managers who stepped in to address their needs, and say ‘yes’ whenever possible,” declines. said DeVoe, leader of WaterWatch, which has Pressure to keep wells pumping also comes brought numerous lawsuits against the state from inside the department. over water management. Agency leaders are sometimes slow to stop In Harney County, land permitted for doling out well permits, even when their data groundwater use skyrocketed from 60,000 shows declining water levels and impacts on acres in 2005 to 95,000 acres last year. The lakes and streams. state steadily approved new pumping despite They’ve opted against further restrictions warnings from agency scientists nearly 10 years for the Umatilla Basin, despite acknowledg- ago that the valley’s water table could be drop- ing measures they imposed in the 1980s and ping. 1990s have failed to prevent further drops in Only after multiple complaints from Water- the water table. Watch did the state stop giving out more water And in the Klamath Basin, regulators con- permits last year. Agency leaders now concede tinue granting pumping permits to help irri- they may have given out access to more water gators cope with shortages of surface water, than the system can sustain. despite conceding that the water table is While the state conducts a fve-year study already stressed beyond its sustainable limit. to test that hunch, uncertainty looms over “They have the authority to stop it, and ranchers and residents who use well water to they haven’t exercised that authority,” said drink, bathe and nourish felds of alfalfa. They Jackie Dingfelder, a former state representative wonder whether the state’s study will bring bad from Portland who lobbied for more restraints news or good. They’re not sure they can trust on groundwater use. “It is a classic case of the the results. iron triangle, where they’re beholden to their They worry their wells will go dry while stakeholders and it’s difcult for them to say they wait. no.” — Kelly House and Mark Graves People who advocate for restrictions on
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 12 of 41 August 26, 2016 8 takeaways from “Draining Oregon”
Something seemed amiss in Harney County Underground water in Oregon is a big deal. last summer, long before it became the scene More than 5,000 farms in Oregon’s $5.4 bil- of January’s armed standof at the Malheur 1 lion agricultural industry rely on well water National Wildlife Refuge. to survive. Nearly a million Oregonians need After years of liberally granting access to wells for water they drink. underground water across the high desert of southeastern Oregon, the state abruptly told Oregon regulators are granting irriga- irrigators it would accept no new applications tors access to water they don’t know we to pump wells. Regulators launched a 5-year 2 have. Oregon regulators have given away study, saying they feared newly dug wells were rights to pump groundwater that would fll 150 sucking up unsustainable quantities of water. million tanker trucks annually. Yet in most of Cattle ranching and alfalfa, once bright spots in the state, they don’t know with certainty how the struggling rural economy, were thrown into much water is down there. The best guess in limbo. many places is a cursory federal study from fve How could Oregon so freely approve decades ago. pumping permits for so long, then suddenly announce concerns so serious that they Regulators also have no way to know required immediate action? how much we’re using. Most well owners The Oregonian/OregonLive found that Har- 3 aren’t required to meter and report their ney County fts a disturbing pattern. State reg- water use, putting irrigators on an honor sys- ulators frequently lack the basic information tem not to pump more water than allowed. they need to make sound decisions about the water that fows under Oregon’s surface. Faced Even when regulators have reason to with knowledge gaps, they regularly dole out suspect there isn’t enough water to sus- water anyway. The result, often, is groundwa- 4 tain new well development, they some- ter declines that threaten people and the envi- times grant permits anyway. Our review of ronment. applications to pump groundwater in two Ore- Here are some key takeaways from this gon counties found that regulators routinely series: approved irrigators’ requests for water, despite
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 13 of 41 documented concerns from agency staf. In Why aren’t we doing better? Politics, Harney County, state scientists expressed naturally. Regulators struggle to rein in worries more than three dozen times before 7 groundwater use in part because they face protests from the Portland-based group Water- enormous public and political pressure to keep Watch of Oregon spurred last summer’s mora- the water fowing. Time after time, the Ore- torium. gon Water Resources Department’s attempts to limit groundwater use have prompted lawsuits, Oregon’s approach to groundwater man- open physical threats, or legislative maneuvers agement has diminished groundwater designed to thwart regulation. State politicians 5 supplies. Across 26 percent of eastern Ore- have repeatedly rejected new money sources gon, an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive for the water resources agency. At the current found, irrigators are allowed to pump more rate of funding, the state won’t complete full water than Mother Nature can replace each studies of all Oregon groundwater basins for at year. least 80 years.
The overpumping of Oregon’s ground- Solutions are out there; we just hav- water harms people, plants and animals en’t pursued them. Regulators have con- 6 alike. Virtually every drop of underground 8 templated ending the unofcial policy of water is destined, eventually, to resurface approving new wells without data to determine somewhere as a natural spring. Pumping can their impact, but they haven’t done it. Law- dry up desert wetlands, killing the rare plants makers could fnd the $75 million and addi- that thrive there, and it can deprive fsh of the tional stafng needed to complete the research coldwater hiding spots they depend on during regulators say they need to make decisions hot summer days. For humans, overpumping about new pumping. There are also ways to means well owners siphon water from other encourage frugality. Australia created a mar- users. The resulting clampdowns on irrigation ket in water rights, and some irrigation districts create economic upheaval. charge a per-gallon fee on water.
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 14 of 41 Make a difference: Contact your leaders
Have a reaction to “Draining Oregon” that you want to share with someone who can address the problem? Here are some of the key ofcials you can contact:
Gov. Kate Brown Call: 503-378-4582 Email form: bit.ly/gov-brown Mail: 900 Court St. N.E., Suite 160, Salem OR 97301
Richard Whitman Gov. Brown’s natural resources policy director Call: 503-378-5145 Email: [email protected] Mail: 900 Court St. N.E., Suite 160, Salem OR 97310
Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem Chair, House Committee on Rural Communities, Land Use and Water Call: 503-986-1421 Email: [email protected] Mail: 900 Court St. N.E., H-284, Salem OR 97301
Sen. Chris Edwards, D-Eugene Chair, Senate Committee On Environment and Natural Resources Call: 503-986-1707 Email: [email protected] Mail: 900 Court St. NE, S-411, Salem, OR 97301
Tom Byler Director of Oregon Water Resources Department Call: 503-986-0900 Email: [email protected] Mail: 725 Summer St. N.E., Suite A, Salem OR 97301
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 15 of 41 August 26, 2016 Harney County becomes the latest casualty of lax state oversight of water and irrigation
By KELLY HOUSE The Oregonian/OregonLive
BURNS — ancher Harold Knieriem thought his days of worrying about water would end with Rretirement. No more angst when the skies dry up or a mild winter dollops too little snow on the mountains, leaving his cattle to dine on withered grass. Then the irrigation pivots started spring- ing up around his small patch of land, draw- ing water from deep underground and painting bright green circles of alfalfa on the desert foor. The 76-year-old began to fret. Would all those high-powered pumps draw down his household well? He and his wife, MARK GRAVES/STAFF Alice, need the water to drink and to bathe. It Harold Knieriem, 76, worries that Harney Valley’s groundwater irrigation boom will suck the earth would cost them thousands of dollars to drill dry, leaving nothing for the county’s youth but deeper. dry wells and parched fields. “I have no idea how much time it has left,” he says of the well behind the couple’s mod- est ranch-style home. “Then all the money you thought you’d retire and do stuf with is gone.” much of the state, the agency charged with As drought and economic opportunity rationing Oregon’s water supply lacks solid prompt growers to look underground for new numbers on the natural reservoirs beneath water to sustain their crops, it’s exposing a fatal Earth’s surface. faw in Oregon’s water management. Across Knieriem suspects there isn’t enough water
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 16 of 41 MARK GRAVES/STAFF The ongoing drought in the West has raised prices enough to make it worthwhile for ranchers to dig a well and grow some alfalfa. They can feed the hay to their own cattle or sell it to others.
down there to sustain what’s happening in ate groundwater without frst making sure the southeastern Oregon’s Harney Valley. added stress won’t drain an aquifer. Even when State records show regulators shared Knier- they have reason to suspect harm will come, iem’s suspicions for nine years, but contin- they sometimes give out permits anyway. The ued allowing irrigators to dig new wells. Now result is groundwater shortages that, with bet- state ofcials admit the evidence suggests they ter science or greater caution, could have been overshot. They abruptly stopped processing prevented. new applications for water last year, setting of The Harney Valley is the latest casualty. alarm bells across the basin. Ivan Gall, feld services administrator for Trouble in the valley the Oregon Water Resources Department, said Since the homestead days of the mid- agency ofcials lacked the data to take action 1800s, this high desert valley has been, by sooner and are working hard to catch up. necessity, about beef. Harney County has 14 “We’re doing the best that we can with the cattle for every human. resources we have,” Gall said. “Cattle and hay in this county are life,” said Oregon regulators habitually appropri-
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 17 of 41 Shane Otley, a local rancher who sits on a com- mittee responding to the water declines. “This is the only resource we have.” “You take that away, you’re undoing us,” said Harney County Judge Steve Grasty, the county’s elected administrator. “Undoing the economics, undoing the people here.” Irrigated agriculture remained rare here, even as river siphons enabled farmers to grow watermelons on the Columbia River and onions on the Idaho border. Across much of the Har- MARK GRAVES/STAFF ney Valley, the average year’s rainfall is less Ivan Gall, with the Oregon Water Resources than 8 inches. Flowing water is limited to two Department, says his agency is working hard rivers that by midsummer are little more than to catch up on a dearth of data that makes groundwater management difcult. glorifed creeks. All of it drains to Malheur Lake, a massive wetland oasis that forms the cornerstone of Malheur National Wildlife Ref- arrived: Washington dairy operators, Lake uge. County hay growers and ranch corporations Cattle in the region grazed mostly on range- headquartered in California and Idaho. One land grasses, which grow naturally in the desert. lists a Cheyenne, Wyoming, street address But as the West’s worst drought in recent described in numerous media reports as a hub history sent hay and beef prices soaring from for shell companies that nameless owners use $2.53 per pound of ground beef in 2011 to $4.24 to stash cash and avoid taxes. in 2015, a new economic opportunity opened Land permitted for groundwater irrigation up for landowners in Harney County. in Harney County rocketed from about 60,000 Alfalfa was in huge demand. acres in 2005 to more than 95,000 last year. In Word got out that money could be made the past 15 years, landowners have added more by digging a well, plotting a feld and grow- pumping capacity than the entire quarter-cen- ing alfalfa. You could feed the hay to your own tury preceding, state records show. cattle, or sell it in other parts of the world that But at the very moment that ranchers were raise livestock. pumping more water from the deep soil than Water beneath the surface was abundant ever before, less was falling from the sky to and free. Obtaining permission to dig was so percolate back down. Snowpack in the basin easy, many landowners started drilling before remained thin and melted early, prompting seeking the state’s consent. State regulators drought conditions for the past four summers. didn’t seem to mind, said Andy Root, an irri- Someone needed to decide whether there gator who acknowledged drilling a well with- was enough water for all the new irrigators. out state authorization and now risks losing his water, given the state’s stance on new permits. “The entire valley has done it for many, Repeated warnings many years,” Root said. Michael Zwart, a veteran hydrogeologist In a matter of years, ranchers have with the Oregon Water Resources Department, swapped tens of thousands of acres of range- voiced alarm at what he saw happening in the land for irrigated forage crops. Newcomers Harney Valley.
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 18 of 41 A glimpse inside well application G-17249 In November 2009, Michael Zwart, a veteran hydrogeologist with the Oregon Water Resources Department, voices concern about a proposal by Tim Clemens to sink a well to irrigate nearly 1,000 acres.
The well is approved by the director of the Water Resources Department in March 2010.
Take a look at Zwart’s comments on application G-17777, another well approved over his concerns.
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 19 of 41 Nearly every application to draw ground- water in the region crossed his desk. Zwart’s role was to document whether the new extraction would harm area streams or lower the water table. Zwart raised concerns about pumping at least 33 times starting in 2007, records show. In all but three cases, his superiors waved the well projects ahead anyway. Most of the approvals came from Tim Wal- lin, the department’s water rights program manager, on behalf of department directors Phil Ward and later Tom Byler. Byler, the current director, declined to be interviewed for this story through a spokes- residents had voiced concern that neighbor- woman. Ward did not return a phone call. The ing wells might be siphoning water from one agency, in a statement, said it approves permits another. Wallin granted the permit. based not simply on reports from reviewers like Just four months later, Zwart expressed his Zwart, but also on information the applicant personal reservations directly when evaluat- and others may submit later in the process. ing a request to pump up to 78 million gallons Zwart had been through water shortages a year. before. He was a lead researcher on declines in “I am concerned,” he wrote in the May groundwater in northeastern Oregon’s Umatilla 2009 public-interest review, “that additional Basin a quarter-century earlier. development of ground water in the area will In August 2007, Zwart was reviewing an result in long-term water level declines and application to irrigate 350 acres outside the city increased potential for interference between of Burns when he noticed a nearby well had wells.” lost 20 feet of water in the past two decades. He But Zwart had limited evidence to justify noted the issue in his review and sent it up the his stance because the state has not closely chain of command. Wallin granted the permit. studied Harney County’s groundwater. So Rather than turn away applicants, Gall, the he hedged, telling his bosses he didn’t have department’s regional manager for far east- enough information to deem the resource over- ern Oregon at the time, suggested around 2008 tapped. that the agency start attaching a notice to per- Six months later, Zwart spoke up again. mits. The notice said that the agency reserved Someone had requested a permit to pump up the right to curb water usage if wells showed to 948 million gallons a year to irrigate 1,000 continuous or dramatic drops. Regulators have acres. The rancher envisioned eight pivot sprin- imposed this type of condition on owners of klers, which typically support circles of alfalfa more than 2,000 groundwater permits in Ore- up to a half-mile wide. gon, but they have used it against only two per- This time, Zwart wrote that well develop- mit holders. ment near the property “raises concern regard- On Jan. 27, 2009, Zwart reviewed an appli- ing the potential for the groundwater to be cation from a farmer who wanted to irrigate 125 over-appropriated when the proposed wells are acres of alfalfa east of Burns. He noted nearby
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 20 of 41 MARK GRAVES/STAFF Rusty Inglis, president of the Harney Farm Bureau, has served as a key liaison between state water ofcials and farmers in the area, a county where regulators say they may have given irrigators permission to pump more groundwater than the area’s aquifers can sustain.
constructed.” Wallin issued the permit. In the ensuing years, Zwart and his col- By November 2011, Zwart was highlight- leagues continued to warn that the Harney Val- ing a potentially more dire consequence: Area ley’s water table was lowering. wells could be robbing water from Malheur Over time, Zwart’s superiors stopped issu- Lake. ing permits in two isolated areas to the south The important but imperiled waterway and southeast of Burns. But the state continued is a crucial stopover for migratory birds and processing permits to drill everywhere else, a sacred site for the Burns Paiute Tribe. Pro- even as the Portland conservation group Water- tected under federal law, the lake encompasses Watch of Oregon formally challenged fve per- 80,000 acres at times but shrinks to nothing in mit applications starting in mid-2014. the worst drought years. Less water to feed the The giveaway of Harney Valley’s ground- lake from below would further cloud its future. water was “a water supply train wreck” in the As groundwater drilling continues, Zwart making, WaterWatch attorney Lisa Brown said. wrote, “It is likely that there will be some A year passed before department managers increasing impacts to the level of Malheur announced, in June 2015, that they might have Lake.” granted too many permits. The public decla-
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 21 of 41 ration came nearly eight years after Zwart frst ley made it “easier to get to yes” on well per- raised concerns. mits, creating a perfect storm for things to go “The development got ahead of the data wrong. The valley’s demand for groundwater collection,” Gall, the state groundwater man- shot up so suddenly, Gall said, that state of- ager, said at the time. cials had little time to ponder the impacts. Suddenly, the Harney Valley’s seemingly State rules call for special scrutiny of wells endless pipeline of new water permits was all that are within a mile of a stream, but Harney but cut of. People who owned wells began to Valley streams are so sparse that few wells trig- wonder if they’d be allowed to continue using ger that restriction. The rules allow curbs on them. drilling that will have a “substantial” impact on any river or lake, regardless of distance, but the main body of water threatened by drilling Uncertainty festers in the Harney Valley would be Malheur Lake. It The uncertainty that followed the state’s is so large that no single well would have a sub- moratorium on new wells is another blow to a stantial impact. community already jarred by political and eco- State rules allow regulators to consider the nomic turmoil. cumulative impact of many wells on a place In the past two years alone, Harney County like Malheur Lake. But Woodcock said the has weathered a massive wildfre that wiped department typically opts not to. out nearly 400,000 acres of rangeland, land use Managers said that because the state has no restrictions to protect a desert bird called the estimate of water supplies beneath Harney Val- sage grouse, a prolonged drought and a 41-day ley other than a 1968 federal study, they didn’t armed occupation of the Malheur refuge that know how much pumping the valley could upended local life and pitted neighbors across withstand. Because they have kept few obser- an ideological chasm. vation wells to track water levels, water manag- Ranching and alfalfa were helping to revive ers had little ability to watch out for declines. the local economy, which sufered after the Denying ranchers’ requests for water would collapse of the timber industry. Now, there are be difcult without good data to back it up, reports of household wells drying up. Farm- Woodcock said. ers who had counted on being able to dig new If state managers took that step and further wells are weighing their options. research proved them wrong, he said, “What “We’ve just been hit right and left,” said about all those people that we have denied Harney County Farm Bureau President Rusty over the years because we were operating on an Inglis. Add all those factors up, “and pretty incomplete data set?” soon it’s tragic.” But Woodcock’s agency also didn’t ask Residents and irrigators alike told The Ore- for more money to get the data that would gonian/OregonLive they’re frustrated that the answer questions that its scientists raised about state didn’t catch the problem sooner. Harney Valley groundwater. Gall said that’s Senior department managers includ- because the department anticipated rejec- ing Gall, Deputy Director Doug Woodcock, tion. The economic recession had gutted state Senior Policy Coordinator Racquel Rancier and agency budgets, he said, and “there were just spokeswoman Diana Enright defended the no resources available.” agency’s actions. After shutting down the valley to new Gall said circumstances in the Harney Val- pumping applications, the state launched a
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 22 of 41 study of its groundwater. It’s scheduled to be existing irrigators are legally entitled to use. fnished in 2020. Landowners owe millions on loans they If the new study fnds current pumping took out for digging wells, laying pivots and is either lowering the water table or draining buying farm equipment. Some would have to Malheur Lake, big problems could arise. The abandon their business plans. Their land values lake and surrounding wildlife refuge have long would drop. Ranches could go under. been a source of resentment for some ranchers The last thing this community needs, locals who believe the federal government shouldn’t say, is another issue that pits the environment’s own water rights or limit cattle grazing there. needs against ranchers’ livelihoods. Ammon Bundy’s recent armed standof at the For now, Malheur refuge manager Chad refuge headquarters emboldened many who Karges won’t speculate on what happens if share that view. pumping is harming the lake. Harney Valley residents and ranchers can “Depending who you talk to right now, only hope that halting new wells was enough to some people speculate it’s connected and oth- solve the problem. If not, state regulators could ers say it isn’t,” Karges said. “We’re waiting on start rolling back the amount of water that the study.”
MARK GRAVES/STAFF A sprinkler head sends water spraying onto a farm field in Harney County, where last year state regulators clamped down on issuing groundwater permits.
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 23 of 41 August 26, 2016 The state pours millions into Fifteenmile Creek but fails to help steelhead for lack of water
By KELLY HOUSE The Oregonian/OregonLive
FIFTEENMILE CREEK — overnment agencies have spent more than $2.8 million in taxpayer money on Gthis tiny Columbia River tributary since 2004. Workers have planted shade willows on the banks, lined its rocky bottom with logpile hiding places, and fenced of cattle from the sensitive habitat. There’s just one element missing in the quest to restore Fifteenmile Creek’s threatened steelhead. Water. Area irrigators own rights to siphon more water from Fifteenmile Creek than mountain snowmelt and high-elevation springs can pro- vide, draining it to a string of puddles each summer. Scientists believe the water shortage has contorted the very life cycle of federally pro- tected steelhead in Fifteenmile, forcing them time, but certainly there is that feeling that into unnatural spawning patterns that rou- everything is connected,” said Shilah Olson, tinely kill them. who manages the local watershed council. Now, high-powered wells may be draining Regulators with the Oregon Water the basin further, from below. Resources Department granted landowners “We don’t have a good handle on it at this permission to pump the area’s underground
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 24 of 41 At its best, in early spring, Fifteenmile Creek roars down 54 miles from the Cascade Mountains before pouring into the Columbia River. But by summer, the creek’s flow is drastically altered by loss of snowmelt and irrigation diversions that suck up much of the remaining water.
MARK GRAVES/STAFF APRIL 2016
AUGUST 2016 water without frst closely studying its relation- constructed. Until they fnd out more, they ship with the creek. Then people’s well water hesitate to limit existing groundwater rights. levels started dropping. The agency put the “We take those actions cautiously,” said brakes on new groundwater permits in 2011. Doug Woodcock, deputy director of the agency. But water resources ofcials say they need “We want to make sure we got it right.” to do more research on whether Fifteenmile The problems in the Fifteenmile Watershed has too many wells, or if water levels in certain are part of a much broader pattern across the wells are declining because they were poorly state, The Oregonian/OregonLive has found.
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 25 of 41 U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE Endangered Hood Canal steelhead are seen at Washington state’s Quilcene National Fish Hatchery. Biologists suspect that steelhead in Fifteenmile Creek might act like winter-spawning steelhead, but are actually summer steelhead forced to delay entry to their spawning grounds.
Oregon regulators have given away rights to so “This isn’t sustainable, what we’re doing much underground water that irrigators in sev- now,” said Tim Dahle, who grows pears and eral basins are drawing down aquifers, threat- cherries west of Dufur. “We have to improve ening future economic disruption and posing what we’re doing or we’ll come to resemble dangers to plants and wildlife. California.” It could be years before state scientists can say whether wells are robbing the creek of A contorted life cycle water. Meanwhile, fsh keep dying. Only 424 Fed by rain and snowmelt in cooler made it upstream last year in a system that months, Fifteenmile Creek tumbles down 54 should support an annual run of up to 2,638 miles from the mountains east of Mount Hood spawning adults, according to data compiled by before emptying into the Columbia River just the local soil and water conservation district. upstream of The Dalles. Across the rolling hills south of The Dalles, By summer, springs originating high in the farmers who rely on groundwater are also Cascades are the main source of Fifteenmile’s watching with trepidation as the state studies dwindling fow. Irrigation diversions along the the problem.
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 26 of 41 way further sap the creek. Scientists used to think steelhead spawning in Fifteen- mile and its trib- utaries were the Columbia River’s easternmost run of winter steelhead. It turns out that assumption is prob- ably wrong, and the confusion had every- thing to do with the creek’s disappearing water. Steelhead spend two or more years in the ocean before returning to the stream of their birth to spawn. Biologists Some even made designate the fsh summer-run or winter-run it past an addi- based on the season they’re biologically pro- tional dam, the grammed to arrive home. John Day, before Fifteenmile Creek’s steelhead reach their turning back. spawning grounds between November and Some made the April, seemingly a textbook winter-run. But round trip more biologists discovered something strange when than once before they began implanting these migratory fsh winter rains made with electronic tags that track movement. the creek pass- Many Fifteenmile fsh made a tentative trip able. home much earlier, in July or August when the MARK GRAVES/STAFF Rod French, district fish These unfore- stream is bone dry and unswimmable in parts. biologist for the Oregon seen delays in Government scientists now hypothesize that Department of Fish migration pose these aren’t winter steelhead at all, but summer and Wildlife in Wasco numerous hazards fsh forced by humans to adopt a winter life- County. to steelhead. Pas- style. sage downstream The tags showed Fifteenmile steelhead through The Dalles essentially killing time during the inhospita- Dam is impossible for fsh in certain months ble summer months. They overshot the creek, without a swim through grinding turbines. The climbed The Dalles Dam fsh ladder and contin- prolonged stay in the Columbia also exposes ued up the Columbia River to the Deschutes.
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 27 of 41 Fifteenmile steelhead to fshermen’s hooks and in those places.” predators’ talons for a longer period. Before humans altered the watershed, a The journey kills about half of all migrating 2004 study found, each egg’s chances of sur- Fifteenmile steelhead, according to research viving long enough to exit the creek would from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wild- have been closer to 1 in 4. life and the Bonneville Power Administration. Last year, fewer than 1 in 50 smolts made it Even if adults survive to spawn, their of- out alive. spring face additional perils in Fifteenmile’s Rod French, a district fsh biologist for the hot, scarce water. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, esti- The tiny young fsh, called fry, emerge from mates that mass die-ofs of juvenile steelhead the gravel by early summer and then spend happen yearly. But because most of the land two years in a stream that regularly goes dry or abutting Fifteenmile is private, they’re rarely heats up beyond a steelhead’s preferred sub-60 documented. temperatures. One stretch never dipped below French’s job involves protecting fsh in 70 for two straight weeks last year, according to Fifteenmile and nearby streams. It’s made Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife data. more difcult by the focus on planting green- The hottest water hit 83. ery instead of addressing the creek’s glaring, “You’re talking about temperatures that are human-caused water shortage. capable of just outright killing fsh,” said John “To be honest, it’s frustrating,” he said. “It’s McMillan, a science director for Trout Unlim- fairly obvious that fsh need water, and it’s the ited. “If temperatures are consistently that lacking component in this recovery efort.” warm, it doesn’t bode well for the future of fsh
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 28 of 41 MARK GRAVES/STAFF The Dufur Valley along Fifteenmile Creek south of The Dalles, traditionally has been a dryland wheat region. But in recent years many of the area’s wheat farms have converted to cherry orchards with the help of wells dug deep into the underlying basalt rock.
“They’re certainly proftable in a good year, Increased demand, ignored warnings and this is a really great climate for growing So scarce is water in the Dufur Valley, them,” said the local watershed council’s Olson. whose slopes drain into Fifteenmile Creek, Acreage of irrigated agriculture in Wasco only landowners who hold 155-year-old sur- County nearly doubled between 1997 and 2012, face water rights were able to collect their full much of it concentrated in the Dufur Valley. allotment last summer. Many farmers settle The number of wells that ofcials allowed in for growing dryland wheat, using rain alone to the Fifteenmile Creek Basin skyrocketed. nurture their felds. State regulators had many reasons to doubt But in recent years, wells have cropped up the Fifteenmile ecosystem could withstand across the valley as The Dalles’ orchard and the new withdrawals of water. vineyard economy moved inland, converting Unlike the Willamette Valley’s gravel aqui- dryland wheat felds to thirstier, more lucrative fers, underground water in the Fifteenmile cherries and grapes. Cherries can bring $10,000 Creek basin is held in Columbia River Basalt, per acre, four times the going price for dryland a highly impervious rock formed millions of wheat. years ago by lava fows. Local rainfall doesn’t
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 29 of 41 penetrate easily. The water below seeps its a tributary. In three of those cases, regulators way into rock fssures laterally, across vast dis- went further, saying that pumping would likely tances. cause harm. Columbia River Basalt bounces back slowly Yet in all of Wasco County, where Fif- when wells are sunk into it. Groundwater teenmile is located, water resources ofcials losses during the 1950s forced areawide restric- rejected none of the 70 permit applications the tions on new wells in The Dalles, where Fif- agency reviewed between 1996 and 2011. teenmile enters the Columbia. Sixteen miles Today, irrigators in the Fifteenmile basin to the west in Mosier, studies have found wells and surrounding drainages are entitled to draw drawing from the basalt aquifer are sapping 15 billion gallons annually, agency data show. Mosier Creek. That’s 50 percent more water than precipita- “It’s the same thing you see in other areas tion sends back to the water table, according to where people pull from the Columbia Basalts,” a 1968 estimate of the area’s groundwater sup- said Robert Wood, the Wasco County water- ply by the U.S. Geological Survey. master. “It’s deep water, and it seems like Only in 2011 did the Oregon Water there’s a lot of it. But then we start to see Resources Department stop granting new declines.” groundwater permits along Fifteenmile and its Only two long-term observation wells tributaries. existed, but their data suggested even limited Ivan Gall, the agency’s feld services admin- pumping in the valley before the 1990s was tak- istrator, said ofcials didn’t have robust enough ing a toll. data to stop approving wells any sooner. Two One, by the creek just west of Dufur, was so observation wells did not provide adequate packed with water in 1979 that it exerted 95 feet coverage. of upward pressure. By the late 1990s, half the “At the location of a new application, you pressure was gone. may not have any site-specifc information,” he The other, three miles upstream at Ramsey said. Creek, dropped 30 feet from its 1962 level. “Knowing about a decline eight miles away Fifteenmile Creek is visibly connected may not be that helpful.” to what lies beneath, virtually disappearing The Oregon Department of Geology and underground in some stretches, while swelling Mineral Industries is two years into a study to up with springwater in others. map the area’s subsurface. The water agency Such springs can be a lifeline for fsh in will use that information to test whether wells overheated streams, ofering a rare source of are draining the water table and Fifteenmile cool, fowing water in the height of the irriga- Creek. tion season. Tapping an aquifer joined to the Woodcock wouldn’t comment on what his creek would be practically the same as pump- agency will do if the answer is yes. ing from the creek itself. “We’ll take a look at the study and see if, in Documents show state employees who fact, we can confrm there is an impact there reviewed applications to use groundwater before we go and speculate on what it means warned repeatedly that new wells could bring for adjacent waterholders,” he said. problems. Conclusive information about the impact of Nine times reviewers noted that the under- wells on the creek and its steelhead, the agency ground water source a landowner hoped to tap says, could be years away. was likely connected to Fifteenmile Creek or
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 30 of 41 subsequent documents address- “Band-Aids” for fish ing the obligation to restore Fif- Robert Bissonette, a 60-year- teenmile steelhead under state old retired teacher who grew up and federal Endangered Species on Fifteenmile Creek, remembers Acts. the days when an angler could After a major die-of of steel- bring home a full creel after an head in the creek’s hot, shallow hour on the water. water in 2009, federal investiga- The creek of Bissonette’s tors told area irrigators they could childhood was by no means an be charged criminally if the deaths ecosystem untouched by human MARK GRAVES/STAFF continued. activity. But all manner of fsh Robert Bissonette Yet agencies with authority were far more abundant. remembers when an angler under federal environmental laws “The water was so clear you could bring home a full chose not to order irrigators to could see where the fsh would be creel of fish in a short time on Fifteenmile Creek. make changes that would bolster hanging out and where the lam- Fifteenmile’s fow. prey were coming up,” he said. State law is of little help. Now, recreational steelhead fshing is Senior water users can legally drain streams banned. dry. The creek looks prettier with all the money Since the 2009 fsh die-of, some irrigators taxpayers have poured into restoring fsh habi- who draw directly from the surface of Fifteen- tat, Bissonette said, but until regulators restore mile Creek have agreed to forgo pumping on the water, “you’re just putting Band-Aids hot days in exchange for payments from The on something that needs a whole systemic Freshwater Trust, an environmental group. rebuilding. And the wells have to be included.” The possibility that well owners are sim- Every government agency working to save ply sumping the water back out from below is Fifteenmile steelhead has acknowledged irriga- “defnitely an issue that’s on our radar,” said tion is a major barrier to success. Yet none has Caylin Barter, who oversees The Freshwater forced a clampdown. Trust’s program to revive Fifteenmile. “It’s on The Oregon Department of Environmen- everyone’s radar out there.” tal Quality, in a 2005 document outlining the A federal status review released in Decem- creek’s violations of the federal Clean Water ber indicates Fifteenmile’s steelhead are worse Act, said water scarcity was a key culprit. of today than they were a decade ago, when “Increased instream fow, where depleted, they were listed as threatened. will ultimately be needed” to cool the stream to The failed recovery efort left Bissonette, acceptable temperatures, regulators wrote. the fsherman, disillusioned and dejected. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wild- Tired of Oregon’s unwillingness to take on life and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric irrigators around Fifteenmile Creek, he packed Administration each repeated the message in up and moved to Alaska.
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 31 of 41 August 26, 2016 No money to measure Oregon’s water levels
By KELLY HOUSE The Oregonian/OregonLive
regon has given away its underground water like Australia’s. It could aggressively sub- water supply freely, thanks to a strange sidize high-efciency irrigation, or it could tax Opolitical equation. irrigators by the gallon, instead of charging Farming interests and their allies in the users nothing, regardless of how much they Legislature routinely oppose eforts to curb draw. new construction of irrigation wells, saying But experts say we’ll never know how state regulators lack hard data to prove water is much these ideas would help until Oregon running out. knows precisely how much underground water Yet serious money never materializes for fows beneath our feet. the studies everyone says are needed, a year- “You can’t efectively manage a resource long review by The Oregonian/OregonLive unless you know how much is there,” said Eric found. The Oregon Water Resources Depart- Schuck, a Linfeld College economics professor ment says completing work on Oregon’s 15 who specializes in the economics of irrigation. remaining uncharted basins would take $45 History provides little reason for optimism. million to $75 million, plus additional stafng at the agency to get the work done quickly. “The need for data and information is the Legislative pushback one thing every person engaged in this process When aquifers start drying up, regulators agrees on,” said Mary Anne Nash, a lobbyist for face enormous legal and political pressures to the Oregon Farm Bureau. “Nobody wants to be keep the water fowing. They have been sub- in a situation where a basin is potentially being jected to lawsuits, budget threats and bills shut down while we’re gathering more info.” designed to block water restrictions. More dramatic reform ideas are out there. Ag interests gave more than $900,000 Oregon could impose a trading system for to state and federal candidates in Oregon in
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 32 of 41 2014 alone, according to data real estate agent who chaired from the National Institute on the House Committee on Water Money in State Politics. Policy, introduced legislation in Fred Lissner, a former sci- 1995 that some scientists and entist for the Oregon Water activists dubbed “the anti-grav- Resources Department, had a ity bill.” It ofcially rejected the front-row seat to water battles scientifc consensus that rivers in the Legislature during his and lakes are interconnected long career. with underground water. Never A farming boom fed by well again could the state block water lowered the Umatilla FILE/2009 a well because it threatened Basin’s water table dozens of In the 1980s, then-Oregon State nearby streams. feet in some areas by the 1980s. Sen. Mike Thorne of Pendleton Gov. John Kitzhaber vetoed Lissner recalled the reaction delayed the Water Resources the bill. Department budget when it from Mike Thorne, a Pendleton proposed cutbacks on pumping. Separately, Sen. Neil Bry- senator who ran the Ways and ant sought legislation in 1995 Means Committee, when the to green-light water permits Water Resources Department the state had delayed over con- proposed cutbacks on pumping. cerns that new wells would rob the Deschutes “He didn’t think that was a good idea,” Liss- River. Bryant, a Bend water lawyer, sponsored ner said. the bill after learning that his clients were hav- When budget season came along, Thorne ing trouble getting water. held the water department’s spending plan in “They were making it impossible to do any committee long after other agency budgets had type of new development,” Bryant said. “The been approved. Thorne says he wanted depart- backlog couldn’t continue.” ment leaders to consider other options before Three years later, state and federal rushing to regulate. researchers concluded that virtually all ground- “I wasn’t trying to be punitive,” the for- water in the Upper Deschutes Basin eventually mer Democratic senator said. “I just expected a winds up in the river. It’s impossible to obtain a level of performance that I didn’t see.” groundwater permit there today without agree- Subsequent attempts to limit groundwater ing to return water to the river for every drop of pumping met similar resistance. groundwater used. Republican Rep. Chuck Norris, a Hermiston In southern Oregon’s Klamath Basin, hus- band-and-wife Reps. Gail and Doug Whitsett also sponsored bills that would make it harder Oregon water resources to limit well usage in the name of protecting department staffing surface water. State and federal ofcials say pumping in the Klamath has lowered its water table and weakened surface springs. “We’re seeing an overregulation, in my opinion,” Gail Whitsett told The Oregonian/ OregonLive. In the Harney Valley, Senate Minority
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 33 of 41 MARK GRAVES/STAFF Irrigated and harvested fields paint the eastern Oregon landscape along U.S. Route 197 south of The Dalles.
Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, has criticized budget last year went to natural resources. The the state for turning down new well construc- water agency as a whole got less than one-tenth tion while researchers scramble to study the of that sliver. area’s groundwater. Ferrioli says the research Among its staf of 163, just 12 people work money might be better spent helping ranchers on wells and aquifers. Those 11 hydrogeologists deepen their wells. and one manager last year processed 165 new “People out there are more fearful of the applications for well permits, while also jug- regulatory impact of bureaucrats from Salem gling other paperwork and long-term scientifc than they seem to be concerned about the wells studies of aquifers. To put that in context, the going dry,” he said. city of Portland employs seven full-time rang- ers to patrol its parks. Resources for managing wells and aquifers Tepid support remained paltry, despite a 2012 warning from Oregon environmental agencies often come the state Water Resources Commission, a group up short in the battle for state funding, but the appointed by the governor to oversee the water Water Resources Department is a perennial resources agency. loser. Just 2 percent of the state’s general fund The commission that year called for water
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 34 of 41 managers to do more basin endorsed by a state commit- studies, build more monitoring tee that spent more than two wells, and get more irrigators to years studying ways to pay for measure and report their water the water department’s work. use. Commissioners noted that Kitzhaber’s natural resources such eforts “are underfunded policy director, Richard Whit- and have been for years.” man, told senators that efec- Lawmakers responded tive water management during strongly to one of the com- a time of climate change was mission’s other 2012 requests: Oregon’s leading natural money to plan for future water ASSOCIATED PRESS/2015 resources issue. needs and develop water infra- Senate Minority Leader Ted “You can see the crisis structure, such as reservoirs. Ferrioli, R-John Day, says the that’s looming,” Whitman said. Those eforts received $51 mil- state’s research money on The governor pulled his groundwater would be better lion in the current two-year bud- spent helping ranchers deepen support a day later, after irriga- get. their wells. tors complained the fee would But the Legislature came up threaten their livelihoods. with only a pittance to quantify Whitman vowed to return the Oregon’s groundwater supply: next year with “a more well- $1 million since 2012. formed proposal.” Dennis Doherty, a longtime state water Three years later, no such proposal has sur- commissioner who retired this spring, said it’s faced. not fair to blame either the water resources Whitman remains in the same job under agency or irrigators for the depletion of Ore- Kitzhaber’s successor, Gov. Kate Brown. A gon’s aquifers. spokesman for Brown declined to make Whit- “If the Legislature really cared about man or any other adviser available for an inter- understanding groundwater,” Doherty said, view. “they’d put real money into those studies.” When agencies were asked to identify areas Stalled solutions to save money during the latest recession, Decades of Oregon water policy have water resources ofcials ofered to sacrifce emphasized developing new sources of water groundwater studies frst. Lawmakers obliged. to meet demand for the natural resource, rather Over three straight budget cycles, from 2005 than controlling its use. Climatologists and through 2011, research on aquifers got a grand many hydrologists say that emphasis needs to total of $100,000. change. WaterWatch of Oregon, an advocacy group, The frst, most basic step could be to tried to create a new source of funding in 2009 reverse Oregon’s unofcial policy of approv- by proposing a $100 annual fee on each holder ing new wells in places where regulators can’t of the state’s roughly 87,000 water rights. determine their impact. A January 2015 internal Farmers and lobbyists testifed against the memo to Water Resources Department Director plan. Martha Pagel, the water resources agen- Tom Byler recommended just that. cy’s former director, challenged the fee’s legal “Staf recommends considering a change in underpinnings. The bill died in committee. processing practice — defaulting to ‘no’ instead Kitzhaber resurrected the concept in 2013,
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 35 of 41 MIKE GRAVES/STAFF An irrigation well cap sits in a Dufur Valley field along Fifteenmile Creek south of The Dalles.
of ‘yes’ when data cannot confrm that new their water use, and that the Water Resources groundwater allocations lie within the capacity Department’s report is due in February. of the resource,” the memo said. A $100 annual fee on all water rights, plus As of this spring, the policy had not federal matching money and some new hires, changed. would likely be enough to complete all remain- A separate move, advocated by a wide ing groundwater studies in fve years. array of water experts, would be for lawmakers The state estimates that Oregonians will to pay for studying how much each basin has consume 420 billion more gallons of water to give. That would give water resources man- annually by 2050, a 15 percent increase. agers better ammunition to reject new wells The state’s current thinking on how to cope when necessary. calls for diverting water from Pacifc North- Water Resources Department leaders say west rivers during rainy winter months, then they hope to ask for more money in 2017-19 to storing it in reservoirs or pumping it down into expand the agency’s groundwater study team. aquifers. Some communities have seen suc- “We have had conversations with the folks cess with artifcial recharge tactics, even using over in the Legislature with regards to the treated wastewater to do the job. Experts say resources necessary to do the job,” said Doug the strategy holds promise for more wide- Woodcock, the agency’s deputy director. spread use. A spokesman for the governor’s ofce “Wherever there’s a wastewater treatment said Brown is committed to securing addi- plant, I’d be sticking that treated water under- tional funding. He provided no specifcs. But ground,” said Todd Jarvis, director of Ore- he noted that the governor has called on all gon State University’s Institute for Water and state agencies to recommend ways of reducing Watersheds.
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 36 of 41 But critics caution such approaches may Potential responses to Oregon’s backfre. Taking water from rivers in winter underground water problem could disrupt the lives of fsh in unforeseen ways, they say, and pumping wastewater into In many parts of Oregon, state regulators have given away rights to pump more underground the water table is a gamble. water than Mother Nature can sustain. Our Federal agencies have ofered grants to canvass of academic experts and a review of help farmers adopt conservation measures. policies enacted elsewhere suggest a range of Dufur Valley orchardist Tim Dahle fgures he potential responses. has cut his water use in half by converting from Rescind Oregon policy of approving wells when sprinklers to drip irrigation and laying mulch there’s no way to determine potential harm. around his trees. If all irrigators in the valley Adopt a statute like Colorado’s, saying Oregon made the same changes, Dahle said, “the prob- will reject new wells unless applicants prove lem would go away.” enough water exists. Currently, farmers lack much fnancial Adopt Washington law prohibiting wells that incentive to follow Dahle’s lead, because water create any harm to streams short on water. rights entitle owners to water free of charge. Oregon prohibits only “substantial” harm. Farmers do pay higher electricity bills, the Create $100 annual fee on each of Oregon’s more water they pump. But to make a signif- 87,000 water rights. With federal matching dollars cant dent in water use, advocates say, someone and some state hires, Oregon could pay for $75 needs to put a price on the commodity. million in groundwater studies in five years. In Australia, a 10-year drought prompted Finance groundwater studies with some of $51 drastic measures in the Murray-Darling Basin, million earmarked for planning water needs and the country’s main agricultural region. Gov- developing infrastructure. ernment leaders, realizing that irrigators were Spend $25 million completing state well using far more water than the system could network to detect falling water tables. sustain, began rationing water. Require meters on all wells and annual usage Whereas a water right in Oregon entitles a reports to regulators. landowner to a certain volume of water, Aus- Cap total water use and allow users to buy and tralian irrigators get a designated share of what sell water, like in Australia. the government decides is available each year. Charge a per-gallon fee on owners of Another diference: Half of all water in the Mur- groundwater rights. ray-Darling is reserved for the environment. Expand subsidies for high-efciency irrigation The system has created a market in water. equipment. Anyone who wants more than their share can pay someone willing to relinquish some of theirs. Regulators require a meter on every pump so that every drop is accounted for. Lim- for modern water management, particularly its are strictly enforced. in drought-ridden agricultural regions like the “It gives you an incentive to be as careful western United States. with that water as possible,” said Schuck, the In Oregon, irrigators have protested even Linfeld economist, who has studied the Aus- the idea of universally measuring water use, tralian system. fearing it will cost too much and lead the state The program, launched in 2012, is still in inevitably down the road to some kind of its infancy. But it’s being lauded as a model charge on water.
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 37 of 41 August 26, 2016 How we measured the mismatch between Oregon’s supply and demand for water
The Oregonian/OregonLive
he Oregonian/OregonLive set out to that, in key ways, is more likely to understate gauge whether Oregon well users are enti- the problem than overstate it. For example, our Ttled to pump more water than the state calculations focused strictly on ensuring well can sustain. users have water. We didn’t take into account Specifcally: We compared legally permit- any impacts on streams that often lose ground- ted pumping volumes with the state’s best water when a new well is drilled and pumped. estimate of what Mother Nature replenishes Such stream efects can harm both aquatic each year through rain and snow. Out of the creatures and the owners of surface water 31 basins and sub-basins we analyzed in east- rights. ern Oregon, we found nine where permitted Some scientists have criticized such demand exceeds capacity. approaches as an inadequate measure of sus- Our estimates can be considered only one tainability. very basic indicator of the mismatch between Three academic experts who provided water rights and water supplies. Accurately feedback on The Oregonian/OregonLive’s anal- depicting the fow of water through under- ysis said it is no substitute for more extensive ground rocks and soil usually takes multi-year, studies into the size, shape and behavior of multi-million-dollar studies. Because few stud- aquifers. ies have been done statewide, we were forced But Sasha Richey, a postdoctoral fellow at in most cases to use cursory estimates of Washington State University’s Hydro Lab, said groundwater replenishment developed nearly scientists widely acknowledge that 50 years ago. “a sustainable rate of groundwater pumping We tried to follow a conservative approach should remain well below the rate of annual
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 38 of 41 MARK GRAVES/STAFF Water trickles down the slope of a mountain fen deep in the Ochoco Mountains, northeast of Bend. The small streams that flow through such wetlands come from groundwater that springs up from underground to create oases in the desert.
replenishment.” “Estimated Existing and Potential Groundwater Jay Lund, director of the Center for Water- Storage in Major Drainage Basins in Oregon,” by shed Sciences at the University of California, J.H. Robison. Davis, said the analysis provides a broad sense Robison examined 67 Oregon sub-basins, of the scope of Oregon’s overpumping problem. starting with the amount of water running Although additional data might move the num- through each basin’s streams in late summer. bers either way for individual basins, he said, it Because rain and snowmelt are gone by that wouldn’t alter the fundamental conclusion that time of year, Robison assumed all of the sum- “we need to do better.” mertime water came from precipitation stored underground. The author then extrapolated from monthly fgures to annual volumes. The supply Robison’s report acknowledged that the For the amount of potential new ground- method was subject to error. Another problem, water arriving each year through precipitation, academic experts told us, is that precipitation we mainly used a 1968 study by the U.S. Geo- and the volume that reaches deep aquifers may logical Survey. The 15-page report was titled, well have declined in the past 50 years.
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 39 of 41 Nonetheless, the 1968 numbers are all that’s available in most cases. The Oregon Water Resources Department used its estimate for the Harney Valley in testimony to legislators last year, when justifying a halt to new ground- water permits. Experts recommended we use more cur- rent estimates of annual water infow where available. We did so for the Umatilla, Klamath, Willamette and Upper Deschutes basins. We also modifed the 1968 map, merging some basins to match current boundaries and subsequent studies. State regulators took the same approach in analyzing the Harney Valley last year. Our map had 42 basins and sub-basins statewide. We did not account for irrigation water that might percolate into the ground, a volume that depends on type of irrigation, crops and the soil types. No comprehensive estimate of such “return fows” exists for Oregon basins. A Klamath Basin study called return fows “not a MARK GRAVES/STAFF signifcant source” of replenishment. Data from Allison Aldous, a scientist with The Nature a U.S. Geological Survey study of the Upper Conservancy, measures the flow of a spring in Deschutes Basin indicated 12 percent of the irri- the Ochoco Mountains. The area’s small, spring- gation water sprayed on crops made it deep fed wetlands sustain a diverse and lush micro- environment in an otherwise arid desert region. into the soil.
The demand mitted irrigation wells, which are not included To measure how much water users are enti- in our estimates. tled to pump, we used a state permits database. We focused on what is knowable: the vol- To avoid double-counting water entitlements, ume to which everyone is legally entitled. we used mapping software to eliminate dupli- Finally, in each basin, we compared per- cate and overlapping permits. We labeled each mitted water use with the annual infux of new permit with a basin number and then multi- water. We defned “over capacity” as 100 per- plied the permitted acres by the permit “duty,” cent or more. We found nine basins over capac- meaning feet of water the state allows per acre ity, one at 80 to 100 percent of capacity, and for a specifc type of use. two at 60 to 80 percent. State geologists note that not everyone Richey, of the University of Washington, with a permit uses it. Conversely, the state has said this defnition of capacity is a highly con- no universal way to know when users consume servative choice. The World Resources Institute more than allowed. Based on interviews with recently created estimates of “water stress” on farmers, the state also has its share of unper- surface and groundwater basins, describing a
DRAINING OREGON | THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE 40 of 41 system as being under “high stress” if water that regulators estimate crops and livestock users consume more than 40 percent of what’s comprise 80 percent of water use. available, and “extremely high stress” if it’s greater than 80 percent. Other aspects of our analysis also lean The impacts We also looked for signs that pumping might toward understating the impact of drilling. be causing underground water tables to fall. Among them: We had no way of incor- Oregon ofcials track a network of monitor- porating the efect of pumping on deep aqui- ing wells statewide. These are not a represen- fers that aren’t well-connected to local surface tative sample of all agricultural areas, tending water systems. These aquifers often contain instead to cluster in places with groundwater “fossil” water thousands of years old. They issues. Nonetheless, falling wells across multiple refll slowly and can start declining even before basins might hint at the scope of the problem. water use exceeds annual replenishment. From 19,000 monitoring wells, we selected Well construction and water tables inter- 185 statewide with the most consistent mea- act in complex and sometimes unpredictable surements. Specifcally: A well had to be tested ways, which may explain why our estimates at least one quarter out of the year in all nine of spotted no problems in some basins the state the half decades since 1970. For each well, we identifes as trouble spots based on other evi- chose the quarter with the most data. dence, such as falling water levels in wells. We then calculated median depth of obser- The analysis also did not fag places on the vations in each half decade and measured the Oregon coast that some experts say face short- average movement, upward or downward. The ages. long-term trend was falling for about 74 per- Finally, we omitted domestic wells from cent of wells east of the Cascades and 63 per- our analysis because many do not require per- cent of wells west of the Cascades. mits. The impact of omitting domestic wells is likely small in most areas of the state, given
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