April 4, 2014
Oversupply: BPA will allocate costs based on use
After a lengthy rate proceeding, BPA officials have decided to allocate oversupply costs to generators within its balancing authority area…
Topic42 archived pages5 guides
Water rights & law
Who gets to divert water, in what order, and what the legislature or the courts changed along the way. Oregon runs on prior appropriation, "first in time, first in right", and most of the fights recorded here come back to that rule: new permits from the Columbia, groundwater limits in the Umatilla Basin, and bills that tried to fund storage or mitigation.
With 2026 context notes
March 7, 2014
Officials assess crack in Wanapum Dam
Fear of a blowout has been reduced, but Grant County Public Utility District officials are still puzzling over what to do about a worrisome…
March 7, 2014
Surface water issued for some Odessa farmers
Some Columbia Basin farmers soon will be able to use Columbia River water to irrigate crops on 80,000 acres, instead of rapidly declining groundwater…
January 16, 2012
Columbia-Snake irrigators plead with lawmakers for help
As much as 140,000 acres of farmland in the Mid-Columbia may go dry in less than a decade unless state and federal governments take action,…
July 22, 2009
Former representative Chuck Norris dies July 20 in FL
Representative Chuck Norris served five terms in the Oregon house, between 1987 and 1997, representing District 57, which included Umatilla…
December 5, 2008
Groups challenge Lake Roosevelt drawdown and water rights
A pair of environmental groups on Monday filed a lawsuit aimed at stopping the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from drawing down the…
Everything filed here
Pages
- Projects + Initiatives
- Agriculture & irrigation fact sheets
- 2050 Plan
- House Bill 3111 and the “3111 Process”
- 2017 Water Legislation Tracking
- Grant opportunities
- 2017 Idaho Water Legislation
- 2017 Oregon Water Legislation
- 2017 Washington Water Legislation
- Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer Overview
- 2017 Annual Membership Meeting and Water Conference
- Events
2012
2009
2008
- Alaska Salmon harvest: 146 million fish, $409 million value
- Council hears about electric car impacts on power system
- Polar Bears not threatened but jobs, economy, energy are
- Northwest is Saudi Arabia of hydrogen energy
- FERC urged to slow down on estuary natural gas terminal
- NMFS must examine pesticide impacts on salmon
- Agreement could open up new water rights for WA irrigators
- Feds defend sea lion decision; take could be 22% of steelhead
- Litigation only delays recovery, increases carbon footprint
- NOAA: seven stocks removed from overfishing list, none added
- More time for negotiations on Columbia dredging mitigation
- Draft EIS considers more water from Lake Roosevelt
- ESA impact limits force shut-down of Columbia fish harvest
- 3-4 billion barrels of oil in North Dakota & Montana