Competing visions over the future of the Harney Basin in Eastern Oregon have led irrigators to urge the state to consider an alternative approach as regulators consider a proposal to curb a decadeslong groundwater crisis in the area.

A coalition of irrigators, tribes and local governments organized under state Rep. Mark Owens — a Republican from Harney County and a farmer — recently filed a petition asking the Oregon Water Resources Commission to consider a different set of rules that diverges from regulators own proposals to curb over pumping in the region.

The Harney Basin in southeast Oregon sits in a semi-arid high desert. For the last three decades, groundwater pumping for mainly large-scale agricultural irrigation — which accounts for close to 97% of the region’s groundwater use — has increased to unsustainable levels.

Now, outflow from the Harney Basin is more than can naturally be replenished by rain and snowmelt from the mountains.

That’s because, for years, the state over-allocated groundwater rights in the area.

Groundwater pumped for irrigation tripled from 1991 to 2018. In one area of the basin, groundwater levels have declined by more than 100 feet and continue to drop by as much as eight feet per year. Groundwater levels in other parts of the basin are also in decline, but at much lower levels.

Some 70 residential and livestock wells have gone dry, forcing people to dig deeper for water, a costly prospect.

In 2016, the Oregon Water Resources Department put a pause on new groundwater rights in the basin region, but it stopped short of regulating existing water users.

Now, after years of a rulemaking process that involved local community members, irrigators and environmental groups, OWRD is proposing a set of changes to designate the Harney Basin a critical groundwater area – which would give the agency more authority to curb water use.

Harney Basin water crisis solutions likely to hurt farmers’ pockets

But irrigators say the proposed changes go too far and would put a region whose economy largely depends on agriculture at risk.

“The draft rules that are out by the department set a precedent that nobody else in the state can meet and that hardly nobody has ever been up to,” Owens told OPB.

Owens added that some of the members of the rulemaking process, which include government officials and local farm irrigators, feel they were not meaningfully included in a rulemaking process they say was supposed to be collaborative.

The alternative proposals in the petition seek to address some of their concerns.

“The proposed rule amendments will seek to keep as many farming operations in business as possible while still achieving stabilized groundwater levels across the basin,” read the petition filed through Owens’ office, who’s also the co-chair of the Oregon House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

The petition includes signatures from government officials from Burns, Hines, the Malheur Wildlife Refuge and the Burns Paiute Tribe.

Some of the basin’s largest water users are now raising funds to hire attorneys to challenge the state on behalf of the broader community.

A Sep. 24 email sent to several community members in the area mentioned that Badger Ventures — a business registered to Rep. Mark Owens and Ken Bentz, the brother of Republican U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz — had contributed funds to retain the services of a “prominent” water rights attorney to draft the petition.

Owens and Ken Bentz, along with Rattlesnake Creek Land & Cattle, spent over $80,000 “fighting for a solution,” the email said.

The email asked people to send donations to Portland-based law firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt.

“We are now asking for your help to cross the finish line. Legal costs to present and defend the petition are anticipated to exceed $100,000,” read the email.

Harney County’s groundwater crisis draws Oregon policymakers, and private investors

But some groups say neither the petition nor the request to cover more legal costs are a real solution for Harney communities.

“It [the petition] would allow substantially more groundwater pumping over a longer time period,” said Lisa Brown, an attorney with WaterWatch of Oregon, a water policy watchdog nonprofit. “I think the petition doesn’t meet the goals of the rulemaking, and it really would further undercut needed actions to stabilize the groundwater in the Harney basin.”

Brown said she also takes issue with what is referred to as a “voluntary measure” written in the petition proposal. That’s because as written, the petition is proposing to replace required pumping cutbacks set by the Oregon Water Resources Department with voluntary agreements.

Voluntary water conservation agreements have not been widely used in Oregon, and their success has not been proven, Brown said.

“It doesn’t actually require any action on the part of the irrigators,” Brown said.

In the meantime, OWRD has extended its request for written public comments on its own proposals and on the alternative proposals presented by the coalition of irrigators. The deadline for comments is Oct. 7.

A spokesperson for OWRD told OPB the extended public comment window would allow “the public to speak more holistically to the issues at hand.”

“It also provides a broader range of options for the Water Resources Commission to consider in addressing this issue through a rulemaking process,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “We remain committed to long-term groundwater stability in the basin and hearing local perspectives as we work through this complex and important issue.”

The commission can either adopt the OWRD proposal, the community petition or a combination of both. Water resources commissioners are expected to make a decision at a scheduled December 2025 meeting.

If the proposed OWRD rules are adopted, starting in 2028 the department has scheduled a series of steps to reduce local groundwater use every six years over the next 24 years.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/29/harney-basin-curb-groundwater-crisis/