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Water:
Deschutes River flows

Our Position: oppose
Bill Number: HB 3494
Sponsor: Rep. Chuck Burley (R-Bend); Rep. Gene Whisnant (R-Sunriver); Sen. Ben Westlund (R-Tumalo)
Legislative Session: 2005

Undermines Oregon's Scenic Waterways Act, passed by citizen initiative, as well as the Instream Water Rights Act, authorizing overallocation of water from the Deschutes River and the aquifers that feed it, which will devastate fish habitat and recreation opportunities. Amended to sunset in 2014.

Status

Passed the full Senate Monday, July 18 with a 'sunset provision' of January 2, 2014. After HB 3494 sunsets in 2014, the rules found illegal by the Oregon Court of Appeals early this year, but which are made legal in HB 3494, will be terminated, precipitating the development of a new mitigation and water use strategy for the Deschutes Basin. A House/Senate conference committee now will work out the slight differences and the bill will head to the Governor's desk soon.

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Background

In May, WaterWatch of Oregon won an important lawsuit protecting the Deschutes River in central Oregon. Now water development interests are seeking to overturn the court ruling by changing the law.

Under House Bill 3494 the amount of water flowing in the river could be reduced at critical times of the year as long as there's enough water in it at other times of the year.

Given the current rate of development in the Bend area -  there are already some 18 golf courses and resorts, with new ones being planned every day - new water rights are being filled with water from the aquifers that feed the Deschutes River after the snow has melted away. In the Lower Deschutes River alone, roughly 90% of the summer flow is aquifer fed. The reach between the Pelton Round Butte dams and the Columbia River will be particularly hard hit by HB 3494. 

HB 3494 is a recipe for disaster for the irreplaceable Deschutes River as well as the recreational business and fish and wildlife that depend on its health and well-being.

At issue is a rules program that the Oregon courts recently ruled did not comply with an important river protection law - the Oregon Scenic Waterway Act. This program attempts to "mitigate" the impact on streamflows from new groundwater uses in the basin.  As the court recognized, the program does not offset such impacts on protected streamflows, but instead allows for further reductions of these streamflows.

Now, through HB 3494, water development interests are seeking to validate the same defective rules program that the Court rejected entirely and ruled did not meet the requirements of the Scenic Waterway Act.  Streamflows in the Deschutes River should not be further compromised by legalizing the very program the Court of Appeals ruled was defective.  The goal should be to fix the defects in the program and protect the river and meet the biological needs of fisheries rather than simply continue business as usual. 

The Oregon Senate voted on Monday July 18 to pass HB 3494 in a vote of 27 to 1. If the Governor signs the final bill, it will continue the current defective mitigation rules program until January 2, 2014, at which point the current rules will be repealed.