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Committee hears competing views on bill to allow small-scale sales from domestic wells
Summary
Supporters told the committee HB 3,372 (dash 5) would correct a 70-year-old discrepancy that prevents small growers using domestic wells from selling produce; opponents said expanding exempt wells risks cumulative harm to aquifers and lacks monitoring. The committee took public testimony and left the bill under consideration.
House Committee Co-chair Helm and Co-chair Owens and members heard more than a dozen witnesses on House Bill 3,372 (dash 5), a proposal to authorize limited commercial irrigation from domestic wells.
The bill’s dash‑5 amendment would allow exempt well users to withdraw up to 3,000 gallons per day to irrigate up to one‑half acre of lawn, a personal garden or a commercial garden. Proponents said the change fixes an inconsistency in Oregon law that permits many other commercial uses from domestic wells but bars sale of garden produce from those same wells.
Alice Morrison, representing Friends and Family Farmers, told the committee, “It is legal in Oregon to use however much domestic well water you want just to have green grass on a half acre,” and argued that the statute should allow small…
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