Growth, climate change forcing new management focus



Mark Twain’s witticism that “whiskey’s for drinkin’, water’s for fightin’ over” contains more than a modicum of truth, especially the part about fighting over water, a scarce commodity in the West, and becoming scarcer.

The recent deluge of rain on the central Oregon coast might belie it, but most of the West, including the Pacific Northwest, faces a potentially critical shortage of water in the years ahead, and experts say adept planning now is the key to averting it.

Although surface water sources - in terms of declining stream flows and half-full reservoirs - get most of the attention in water conflicts, experts say some of the worst conflicts of the next century could center on groundwater - a critical resource often taken for granted until it dwindles.

A new analysis by researchers at Oregon State University outlines the scope of the problem. Throughout the nation, aquifers that took thousands of years to fill are being drained within decades, placing both agricultural and urban uses in peril. Aquifers are being depleted much faster than they are being replenished in many places, and wells are drying up, precipitating lawsuits over who has rights and access to the evaporating supply. Groundwater sources that supply drinking water to half the world’s population are in jeopardy.



Mixing oil and water



The OSU analysis pointed out potential ways to ease the situation, partly by drawing on lessons learned the hard way by the oil industry.

“It’s been said that groundwater is the oil of this century,” said Todd Jarvis, associate director of the Institute for Water and Watersheds (IWW) at OSU. “Part of the issue is it’s running out, meaning we’re now facing ‘peak water’ just the way the U.S. encountered ‘peak oil’ production in the 1970s. But there are also some techniques developed by the oil industry to help manage this crisis, and we could learn a lot from them.”

The problems are anything but simple, Jarvis said, and are just starting to get the attention they need. Supplies are dwindling. Land is subsiding.

“In the northern half of Oregon, from Pendleton to the Willamette Valley, an aquifer that took 20,000 years to fill is going down fast,” he added. “In Idaho, people drawing groundwater are being ordered to work with other holders of stream water rights as the streams begin to dwindle. This issue is real and getting worse.”

In the process, underground aquifers can sustain irrevocable damage - similar to oil reservoirs pumped out too quickly. Fractures in rock that store water sometimes collapse when it’s withdrawn too fast, and even if the aquifer had water to recharge it, there’s no place for it to go.

Jarvis said the oil industry developed a “unitization” concept built around people “unifying their rights and their goals, and working cooperatively to make a resource last as long as possible and not damaging it.” The same concept could work with groundwater, but “it takes foresight and cooperation.”

Unfortunately, existing water laws can impede a cooperative effort.



Fights over rights



The ancient “rule of capture” often gives people the right to pump and use anything beneath their land, whether it’s oil or water.

Jarvis said the “first in time, first in right” concept that forms the basis of most water law in the West handles the situation to a certain extent, but proving that someone’s well miles away interferes with another’s aquifer or stream flow is often difficult or impossible. Many wells tap into aquifers that routinely cross state boundaries.

Regardless of what else takes place, Jarvis said, groundwater users must embrace one concept the oil industry learned years ago - the “race to the pump” serves no one’s best interest, whether the concern is depleted resources, rising costs of pumping, or damaged aquifers.

One possible way out of the conundrum, experts say, is maximizing the economic value of the water, and using it for its highest value purpose. But even that, they note, will take new perspectives and levels of cooperation not usually found in such disputes. Government mandates could become necessary to put some “unitization” concepts in place. Existing boundaries could require blurring, along with identifying ways to share the value of the remaining water.

“Like we did with peak oil, everyone knows we’re running out, and yet we’re just now getting more commitment to alternative energy sources,” Jarvis said. “Soon we’ll be facing peak water. The only thing to really argue over is the date when that happens. So we will need new solutions, one way or the other.”

State officials say they face some formidable water resource management challenges within the next 20 years.

Oregon enacted its first water law in 1909.

Since then, Oregon has led the way in progressive western water policy, but some policymakers say the state’s uncoordinated, non-integrated system of water laws and policies might be incapable of handling the water supply challenges the state now faces with either groundwater or surface sources.

Water disregards state and local government jurisdictions, and land ownership boundaries.

Regulatory policies for shared water systems differ among Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, and Montana. No real agreement exists among the Pacific Northwest states about Columbia River Basin management, and management challenges in the Klamath River Basin continue, despite an Oregon-California compact. Multiple federal and state agencies regulate water use, and hundreds of different public and private water and wastewater systems provide numerous water services. Tribal governments hold reserved water rights and other rights pertaining to natural resources.

“The interplay among these disparate regulatory systems makes water management difficult,” Gail Achterman, director of the OSU Institute for Natural Resources (INR) noted during community forums (including one in Newport) INR, IWW, and Oregon Sea Grant Extension conducted in autumn 2008 that led to a first-ever survey and report on what Oregonians thought about water issues.



On the surface



Despite its reputation for rain, Oregon doesn’t have enough water to meet basic needs, said forum participants, who were worried about where the state might be 20 years downstream, wondering whether water supplies would meet future needs.

Achterman said Oregon’s current surface water supply is fully and often over-allocated during the low flow summer and autumn months. In-stream needs exceed stream flows in many places throughout the state. At the same time, demands on groundwater sources are rising, impacting groundwater quantity and quality.

“If groundwater appropriations continue at the current pace, they could be over-allocated in the very near term,” she noted.

Key issues that surfaced were adequate water quantity and quality; concerns about non-point water pollution caused by urbanization; need for more funding for water and wastewater management and infrastructure; protecting existing water rights and uses; more integration of water planning and land use planning; climate change impacts; restoration of wetlands, floodplains, and in-stream flows; interstate water allocation and management.

While disagreements over some matters are quite contentious, one of the key messages that emerged from the sessions was finding a way to manage water locally and regionally, using custom-fit solutions.

“As much as anything, we kept hearing that Oregonians want customized, local or regional water solutions, not a one-size-fits-all mandate by state or federal agencies,” IWW Director Michael Campana noted at the time of the report’s Dec. 30, 2008 release.

The report went to agencies and officials working to develop long-term water management strategies.

Adding to the water scarcity problem is Oregon’s population, projected to increase by 41 percent by 2030. Much of that growth is likely to occur along the Oregon coast (see sidebar).

“Climate change and rapid population growth are bringing a new sense of urgency to water resources management in Oregon,” notes the Headwaters to Ocean (H2O) Initiative, the state’s plan to protect and enhance water quality, and meet the needs for current and future water use.



Terry Dillman is the assistant editor of the News-Times. Contact him at (541) 265-8571, ext 225, or terrydillman@newportnewstimes.com.





















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