Bill would require drilling permits in critical areas

By MITCH LIES
Capital Press

SALEM -- It didn't take long for controversy over water issues to spill over in the Oregon Legislature's supplemental session.

In a hearing Feb. 2 -- one day after the session convened -- the Oregon House Environment and Water Committee began working on a bill to remove some exempt uses from water-use permit requirements.

House Bill 3661 would grant the state authority to require that some water users obtain a permit to drill wells in the state's two-dozen or so ground water limited and groundwater critical areas.

Permits would be required when use exceeded 5,000 gallons a day.

Currently, landowners are exempt from permit requirements for domestic wells if beneficial use is under 15,000 gallons a day. Existing law allows for an additional 5,000 gallons of commercial use on top of the 15,000 gallon limit afforded the domestic wells.

Historically, about 3,800 exempt wells are drilled each year in Oregon, with about 550 in ground water critical or ground limited areas.

In the hearing, the state estimated it could take eight months to obtain a permit.

Several aspects of the bill bother farm lobbyists, including the expense of obtaining a permit, the waiting period before obtaining the permit, the additional work load for water regulators and the lack of a need for the bill.

Existing rules already provide the commission authority to regulate ground water use in critical and limited ground water areas, the lobbyists said.

Also, they said, exempt wells account for less than 1 percent of Oregon's total water use, and as such should not be subject to regulation.

"Water for Life does not see the need for restrictive exempt well legislation," wrote lobbyist Richard Kosesan in a letter to Rep. Ben Cannon, D-Portland, who is chairman of the committee.

John DeVoe, executive director of WaterWatch, disagreed: "We ought to be considering all the uses of the resources in critical and limited ground water areas," he said.

"It would allow for the department to consider matters of interference before they become a regulatory matter," DeVoe said.