Debate grows over measurement and reporting authority in proposed water data bill

House Bill 3419 would standardize and expand Oregon's authority to require water-use measurement and reporting, create a consolidated rulemaking framework for measurement and enforcement, rename certain management designations and modify the water measurement cost-share program; the Water Resources Department testified that it is not taking a position and described existing fragmented authorities.

"This is for informational purposes," Raquel Ranciere, deputy director of the Water Resources Department, told the committee, and she summarized the department's view that existing authorities are fragmented across statute and that the bill aims to provide standardized authority for measurement, reporting and enforcement.

The draft would authorize the department to require measurement and reporting across chapter authorities, create standard enforcement options, allow conditioning of transfers and extensions to improve administrative efficiency, and explicitly allow measurement and reporting as part of critical groundwater area designations or water-data priority areas (a proposed renaming of "serious water management problem areas"). The bill would also allow the department to set reporting frequency by rule and expand the water-measurement cost-share…