The Oregon Water Resources Department (WRD) is the chief regulatory agency of the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

responsible for management of all surface and ground water in the state, which by statute belongs to the public. The department’s primary activities include protection of existing water rights, facilitation of voluntary streamflow restoration, public education about the state’s water resources, collection and dissemination of water resource data, and facilitation of water supply solutions.

History

Following unsuccessful attempts at water rights management as early as 1897, and inability to adequately implement the 1894 federal

Carey act The Carey Act of 1894 (also known as the Federal Desert Land Act)Carey Act in Idaho http://www.gchshome.org/careyact.htm. allowed private companies in the U.S. to erect irrigation systems in the western semi-arid states, and profit from the sales ...

, the

Oregon Legislative Assembly The Oregon Legislative Assembly is the state legislature for the U.S. state of Oregon. The Legislative Assembly is bicameral, consisting of an upper and lower house: the Senate, whose 30 members are elected to serve four-year terms; and the Ho ...

established the office of State Engineer in 1905. The Water Act of 1909 dedicated all ground and surface waters to the public and a comprehensive code of water laws were adopted. Over the years, a number of boards, agencies and bureaus were established, specifically or as part of a broader mandate, to address particular water supply related issues ranging from the Desert Lands Board to the Willamette Basin Commission. In 1987, the present-day Water Resources Department was created to enable a more comprehensive and coordinated approach to water policy. In April 2015, the city of

Cascade Locks Cascade Locks is a city in Hood River County, Oregon, United States. The city took its name from a set of locks built to improve navigation past the Cascades Rapids of the Columbia River. The U.S. federal government approved the plan for the l ...

and the

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) is a government agency of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for programs protecting Oregon fish and wildlife resources and their habitats. The agency operates hatcheries, issues hunting and ...

using water for a salmon hatchery, applied with the Oregon Water Resources Department to permanently trade their water rights to Nestle, which does not require a public-interest review. Nestle approached them in 2008 and they had been considering to trade their well water with Oregon's Oxbow Springs water, and to sell the spring water to Nestlé. The plan has been criticized by legislators and 80,000 citizens. The 250,000-square-foot, $50 million Nestle bottling plant in Cascade Locks with an unemployment rate of 18.8 percent would have 50 employees and would increase property-tax collections by 67 percent.

References

External links

* Water Resources Department, Oregon Water in Oregon 1905 establishments in Oregon {{Oregon-gov-stub