Audit: Oregon water agency needs focus on sustainability
Oregon’s Water Resources Department needs to better balance its workload between its responsibility for managing current water demands and planning for future water needs, according to an audit released by the Oregon Secretary of State on Thursday.
Water supply falls short of demand nearly every year in many places throughout Oregon, and there are indications that this trend will continue. The audit found that WRD lacks the resources and strategic planning needed to ensure that existing water supplies aren’t being overused or contaminated.
“Water is vital to our economic, social, and environmental wellbeing,” Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins said. “Although Oregon is famous for its rain, we face increasing water demands and an inadequate analysis of our existing resources. It is essential that our waters are managed to balance our current and future needs.”
WRD faces barriers in integrating long-term water availability and resource stewardship into its water supply management efforts. By 2050, Oregon could be faced with a need for an additional 424 billion gallons of water per year to meet irrigation needs and municipal and industrial demand.
Meanwhile, a WRD division that focused on conservation, basin planning, and interagency coordination was eliminated more than 15 years ago. Many areas of the state have not had detailed groundwater and surface water studies. WRD also has diminished field staff capacity to monitor and regulate water use.
State auditors found that while WRD plays a key role in Oregon’s Integrated Water Resources Strategy, it struggles to strategically focus agency efforts toward meeting its mission and goals. WRD would benefit from its own long-term agency plan, which could help the agency establish priorities and goals, align resources and workload, improve communication, and identify needed process improvements, auditors reported.
Auditors also noted shortcomings in the well inspection program and around groundwater information. Field staffers perform the bulk of monitoring and regulation work to ensure water is distributed and used appropriately, and that wells are being constructed properly.
However, significant coverage gaps exist, due to limited capacity. Oregon currently has 256,800 known wells, with several thousands of new wells built each year. The agency’s well inspectors physically inspect about 40 percent of new wells statewide.
“It is essential that the agency pays more attention to protecting future water resources, and I hope that the Legislature and the governor’s office will work with WRD to better align funding with its goals,” Atkins said. “Keeping tabs on current water use and supply is critical to understanding and preparing for the needs of future generations of Oregonians.”
Auditors recommended that WRD dedicate more attention to coordinating the collection, analysis, and sharing of data, managing workload demands that hinder water monitoring and regulation, and addressing the low participation in WRD’s flow restoration and conservation programs.
Read the full audit, which includes the agency’s response, on the Secretary of State website.
