BACKGROUND
Right now, Oregon’s domestic exempt well law allows for anyone to use unlimited groundwater on a half acre of land for the purpose of watering their lawns or gardens. For decades, small farmers have been utilizing this exemption to grow local, nutritional food to feed both their families and communities.
BARRIERS
Over the past year, the Oregon Water Resources Department began enforcing 70-year-old technicality in the existing domestic exempt well statute, which specifies that watering lawns and gardens is only allowed if the lawn or garden is noncommercial.
If food is being grown, it should never go to waste. It should go to feeding our neighbors and communities. If you can legally grow vegetables, fruits or flowers for your family using a domestic well, you should be allowed to sell those products to your community — but with ethical, reasonable limits that respect our water crisis.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS WE ARE EXPLORING COULD INCLUDE
- Gal/day #
- Usage reporting
- Annual Registration (including fee) with OWRD
- Or removing the word noncommercial from the current half acre exemption
MORE INFORMATION/RESOURCES
REGISTER FOR OUR FARMER ONLY COMMUNITY WATER MEETING ON 12/17 FROM 12-2PM
VIEW OUR SLIDE SHOW (these were used for our Community Water Meetings around the state)
Watch our Statewide Community Water Meeting –