This page consists of links to meeting agendas, minutes of those meetings. See below the Strategic Plan for this Cohort Action Team; it consists of the team mission, the goals to achieve in pursuit of that mission, and concrete/ measurable objective to complete for each goal. Note that we are always in pursuit of our mission, that we can repeatedly achieve our goals, and that our objectives are what we do everyday.
Click here for the Meeting Agendas
Click Here for the Meeting Minutes
Click here for the Strategic Plan for this Cohort Action Team [DRAFT]
Click Here for Thoughts & Essays by Cohort Members
Descriptions:
Statutes, rules, and funding are the ways we govern water use and water quality. We all have a right and opportunity to have our say about the laws, the rules agencies write about those laws, and the funding that makes implementation and enforcement possible. We must also address the issue of special interests who unduly influence lawmakers to make laws that preemptively to thwart the ability of the state to hold Water in the public trust, thwart the public interest as to how Oregon Water is used, and endanger the public health, welfare, and safety.
Water Law is the body of work that encompasses both the legislation and the court cases that set precedent for how we may use water and impact the quality of water. Scholars and judges have written extensively about Water law for over 150 years in Oregon and the western states that follow and influence each other. The way we experience water use and its relative quality comes from a conventional wisdom and history that must be reckoned with the present and future. Much of our policies and decisions are rooted in antiquated 19th century ideas that did not envision huge population growth, industrial pumping and storage, a 1-in 1,200-year megadrought, and increasing water scarcity leading to permanent aridification and severe declines in aquifers. Water law must bend to the contemporary realities we face or it will shatter into pieces when we need it the most.
Water Rights are the privileges given to people who wish to use Oregon Water for their commercial and profitable needs. One rare exception to this fact is a type of Water right called an In-Stream Water right that is taking a normal Water right and leaving the Water in the stream – not using it. There is a term, usufruct, which means a person has a right to use of the water but not possession of it, although in some cases, water rights holders may store water for certain uses. Oregon law, ORS 537.110 – Public Ownership of Waters, says: “All water within the state from all sources of water supply belongs to the public.” Only the public owns water; the rest of us are allowed to use it. The law stems from the fact that because we all own the Water, no one can own it. Central to the use of our most precious substance, the laws across all the western states require the Beneficial Use of Water. In Oregon,
ORS 540.610 – Use as measure of water right, says: “Beneficial use shall be the basis, the measure and the limit of all rights to the use of water in this state.” According to agency rule, OAR 690.0010 (5) “Beneficial Use means the reasonably efficient use of water without waste for a purpose consistent with the laws, rules and the best interests of the people of the state.”
With increasing water scarcity leading to permanent aridification, there is a need to ensure the ongoing Beneficial Use of Water, especially among the largest Water users in regions where aquifers are declining and rivers are heating or drying up. One of the most damaging forms of water pollution is heat; it causes algal blooms, cyanobacteria, and the death of many species.