An emphasis on Beneficial Use of water

Living in Southern Oregon, we all know what it means to care about water in some way. A decade of drought conditions has brought the importance and scarcity of water to most people’s attention if only because of the high cost of water for residential use. A courageous new organization has emerged to work on improving conditions and management of water in the Rogue Basin, and it’s called Water League. 

Water League was born out of a Water Solutions Summit held last year by So. Oregon Pachamama Alliance (SOPA), which harnessed the attention of more than a  hundred people over the course of seven weeks. The Summit deviated from conventional water policy groups with its inclusion of Traditional Ecological Knowledge from local Indigenous leaders, its dedication to “rights of nature” concepts, and sincere interest in listening to feedback from members of the public. At the conclusion of the Summit the group convened a new group called Water Action Community, a joint project between SOPA and Water League.”

According to the website, the Water Action Community “empowers the public to express their vision, concerns, and solutions about how Oregon’s limited water supply is used and how that use affects water quality.” 

The Water League works like a legal and policy advocacy organization that supports water in the public trust, but it also works with the public to define their positions and priorities. This is not a common practice in nonprofit water organizations, who normally develop campaigns and goals solely from internally derived missions and values.  

According to the Water League website:

Under Oregon law, all water belongs to the public. Water League works to engage the public in the stewardship of the water that is theirs.

In Oregon, the law states that Beneficial Use of the public’s water shall be the basis, the measure and the limit of all rights to the use of water in the state. The legal meaning of Beneficial Use is the reasonably efficient use of water without waste for a purpose consistent with the laws, rules and the best interests of the people of the state.

There is great work being done engaging the public and addressing the way their water is used by the largest water users; however, more must be done. Now, at a time of a once in 1,200-year megadrought, increasing aridification of the west, declining groundwater levels, and heating up surface waters, we’ve heard the public take notice, and we’re here to assist.

And these are not just words. Simply navigate over to the group’s calendar to see upcoming cohort meetings, river clean up events, and work they are doing at a state level to advocate for water justice. And while bold, the group continues to examine the history of water adjudication processes carefully to avoid common follies and unnecessary conflict. 

-Water League About Us

The group uses six core values to guide their work, including:

• Integrity (principled moral honesty) 
• Fairness  (nondiscrimination and justice)
• Stewardship  (care and concern) 
• Conservation  (reasonable use) 
• Perspective (relative importance)
• Biospheric (environmental self-identity) 

Water League has only just begun working in this process, but it appears to have the skeleton of a lasting entity that will confront inequities for many years to come. Already the group has many resources for people to learn, activities to join, and actions people can take! Check out their website at waterleague.org.