Bend Bulletin: Guest column: How to avert a future groundwater crisis
Thousands of Deschutes County homes and vital fish and wildlife habitat could dry up if we cannot slow or reverse the decline of groundwater levels in the Deschutes Basin.
Groundwater levels near Bend and Redmond have dropped 20 feet in the last two decades. Between 2022 and 2023, at least 200 rural Deschutes County households reported that their domestic wells went dry. The Oregon Water Resource Department estimates that if groundwater levels decline 25 feet from highest known historic levels, over 3,500 Deschutes County domestic wells could go dry in coming years. The impacts of groundwater declines on creeks and rivers like Whychus, Tumalo and the Middle Deschutes are unclear. But we know that groundwater-fed springs are a critical source of cold clean water for all creeks and rivers in the Basin.
The best available science tells us the major cause of recent groundwater level declines in the Deschutes Basin is diminishing annual precipitation over the last two decades. Groundwater pumping is the next most important factor and, in some localized areas, piping of irrigation canals has reduced long term artificial recharge of groundwater. We can’t control the weather, but to combat further groundwater declines we can think about how much groundwater we pump and how we use it.
Declining groundwater levels are causing great strain in our community. Existing wells are competing for a diminishing resource. Those with the shallowest domestic wells in any area will be the first to have to drill a new deeper well, at a cost of $30,000 to $80,000 per home. Municipal wells are typically drilled much deeper than domestic wells. But the state’s new groundwater allocation rules create tension between existing municipal wells, serving current residents and future municipal wells, allowing growth. The new rules limit opportunities for new groundwater permits in basins that have experienced significant decline like ours.
The Deschutes Basin is unique within Oregon, with most groundwater pumping for municipal and residential uses, not agricultural use. So we will need tens of thousands of current households and businesses to conserve and become more efficient to free up groundwater in order to accommodate future growth. We can’t just implement conservation on a handful of farms to achieve groundwater savings here. Agricultural water conservation in this Basin could only help supply future population growth if we want to start treating river water for use in our homes.
How can we motivate tens of thousands of existing municipal and residential groundwater users to become more efficient? Municipal customers and farmers look to city water utilities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide technical assistance and incentives to conserve water. But we have over 16,000 exempt domestic wells in Deschutes County and there aren’t specific agencies or programs to encourage or support water conservation for rural homeowners. We need a new system of incentives and technical assistance focused on this type of groundwater user.
We also need any new households and businesses developed within the county to be as water efficient as possible. New homes within cities are generally more efficient than new rural residences because of smaller lot sizes and irrigated area, and because of municipal utility programs that encourage efficiency. So if we are striving for drought resiliency, we should encourage most future growth to occur within incorporated cities.
The state, the county, and our cities all have a role in working with the people of the Deschutes Basin to slow groundwater level declines. Our cities should keep offering incentives and technical assistance to their utility customers and more customers should participate. Deschutes County should use its land use authority to make new rural homes more water efficient and to direct more growth into our cities. The state can create new incentives to improve the efficiency of rural households with domestic wells and can target regulations to encourage water-efficient growth. Together we can avert a future groundwater crisis.
Phil Chang is a Deschutes County Commissioner.
