New irrigation wells would be tougher to drill under proposed Oregon groundwater rules that farm advocates fear will result in a moratorium on new permits.

SALEM — Farm advocates fear new irrigation wells will largely be precluded in Oregon by proposed groundwater rules intended to prevent depleted aquifers and reduced stream flows.

The state’s Water Resources Department is developing regulations meant to set a higher bar for agricultural well permits after increased drilling caused steep groundwater declines in the Harney Basin and elsewhere under current rules.

Revisions spark warning 

The revisions may be adopted as early as next March, but a coalition of farm organizations is warning the current proposal “will effectively end new groundwater appropriations across the state.”

The agency should instead focus on completing “water budgets” for all the state’s hydrologic basins and only then devise a new groundwater policy with lawmakers, according to the Oregon Farm Bureau, Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, Oregon Association of Nurseries, Oregon Dairy Farmers Association and Oregon Water Resources Congress.

“Moving forward with the proposed rules at the current time would be a colossal mistake — one that will have vast negative impacts on the future of our precious water resources and agricultural production,” the coalition wrote in letter to OWRD.

Agency officials acknowledged the proposed rules would have far-reaching consequences during a recent meeting of the state’s Water Resources Commission, which oversees OWRD and would need to approve the revisions.

In the past, the OWRD has approved applications to drill agricultural wells even when it was uncertain that groundwater levels were sufficient for additional withdrawals, which the proposed revisions mean to remedy.

The revisions aim to upgrade the agency’s standards for determining whether water is available, likely causing groundwater permits to be denied “more often than occurs under the current rules,” according to OWRD.

‘Reasonably stable’ levels

Specifically, new permits will only be authorized where groundwater levels are “reasonably stable” — a term that was historically undefined. That now means they haven’t declined by more than half-a-foot annually on average over a period up to 20 years.

Drilling would also not be allowed in aquifers that have declined more than 25 feet or 8% in depth from their original level.

“We wanted to protect against long, slow declines,” said Justin Iverson, manager of the agency’s groundwater section.

The proposed rules would also impose stricter requirements to prevent new agricultural wells from interfering with surface waters.

New wells are currently evaluated to determine whether they’ll reduce surface waters within one mile in a single pumping season, but the revisions would do away with those limits.

In other words, wells wouldn’t be allowed to adversely affect surface waters regardless of time and distance.

“For groundwater that affects those streams that are already over-appropriated, we propose to say under these new rules that water is not available because it’s going to further impact streams,” Iverson said.

Well drillers react

The Oregon Ground Water Association, which represents well drillers and associated industries, is urging the agency to explore less drastic ways to protect groundwater, such as artificially or naturally recharging aquifers.

“It is important to emphasize these rules will have the effect of declaring a moratorium on new groundwater permits throughout the state,” said Greg Kupillas, chair of the association’s government affairs committee.

Limits proposed by the agency, meanwhile, could block beneficial aquifer storage and recovery projects, in which groundwater is recharged and then partially withdrawn, said Malia Kupillas, his wife, who is also a water rights examiner.

“We’re going to hurt the economy. We’re going to make it more difficult for the agricultural community,” she said.

Irrigators: Slow down 

The commission should at least delay making a decision to give the proposed revisions more time to “air out,” said Glenn Barrett, a rancher and president of Water for Life, a group representing irrigators.

As currently drafted, the revisions would likely affect the enforcement of existing groundwater rights connected to surface waters, Barrett said.

“Overall, I think these rules are going a little too fast,” he said. “The unintended consequences really need to be studied.”

Environmental groups urged the commission to move forward with the original timeline for enacting the rules, arguing the revisions are already overdue.

“New water rights should only be issued when there are sufficient data the water is available,” said Richard Roy, a representative of the Trout Unlimited nonprofit.

The existing rules have failed to prevent groundwater over-allocation, so the commission knew a “paradigm shift” was necessary when it set a new policy direction two years ago, said Caylin Barter, Oregon water policy manager for the Wild Salmon Center nonprofit.

The resulting proposal would “stop the bleeding” caused by permits being issued despite inadequate evidence of groundwater availability, Barter said.

“If you don’t know, the answer is no,” she said.