Call To Action:
SUBMIT WRITTEN TESTIMONY BY 5/1/25 AT 1PM
This is our chance to increase agricultural and rural economic opportunity without increasing water use. Help us pass HB 3372 A and allow people to sell food and farm products grown within the exemptions of domestic wells. We have found a true compromise solution here and have bipartisan and broad support for this concept. We have the opportunity to hand the power to feed us back to our communities. We need more farmers in Oregon, and this gives small folks a chance to start.
***Please note that submitting written testimony makes your words part of the legal public record and anything you write about your farm or water use could be used by state agencies.
Guide to submit written testimony:
Target Deadline: 4/29/25 1pm
Hard Deadline: 5/1/25 1pm
- Use this link to get to the testimony page in OLIS
- Fill in your name and info, select “Support” in the Position on Measure section, and upload your testimony as a PDF or word document.
Written Testimony Template:
Here is a template to get you started. PLEASE DO NOT JUST COPY AND PASTE THIS TEMPLATE, IT CONTAINS PLACEHOLDER TEXT. We highly encourage you to personalize this letter and make sure that lawmakers know how this will impact you as a farmer, local food customer, or food business owner.
Chair Golden, Vice-Chair Nash, and members of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire:
My name is [NAME] and I am a [FARMER/RANCHER/COMMUNITY MEMBER/etc] from [TOWN]. I am writing today to support HB 3372 A. Currently in Oregon, it is legal to water a ½ acre garden or use 5,000 gal/day for a commercial purpose using a domestic well, but neither of those apply to growing food and farm products for sale. Why is it legal to use the water for personal use, but selling a single zucchini from my garden would mean I was breaking the law?
This personally impacts me because: [insert your experience here, consider the following questions]***Please note that submitting written testimony makes your words part of the legal public record and anything you write about your farm or water use could be used by state agencies.
- Farmers:
- What production did you stop or how many people did you feed before you knew this type of water use was illegal?
- How much water were you using and was there any negative impact on the water users around you?
- What would being able to irrigate ½ acre mean for your operation and/or the community?
- Community Members:
- Have you seen a drop off in local farmers market vendors?
- Has this impacted your ability to access local food?
- What benefit does having small farms in your area have?
We need to be thoughtful about what we prioritize for water use in our state. This bill is a simple, common-sense solution that would allow people to sell the food and farm products that are already legal to grow, while adding reasonable limitations to the amount of water that can be used.
Give communities back the ability to feed and provide for themselves, and pass HB 3372 A!
Thank you,
[YOUR NAME]
[FARM BUSINESS NAME IF APPLICABLE]
[ADDRESS]
2025 Legislative Session Update (HB 3372):
4/25/25 – Senate Natural Resources and Wildfire Committee scheduled a hearing for 4/29 at 1pm!
4/22/25 – HB 3372A PASSED OUT OF FIRST CHAMBER (HOUSE)! Now it is awaiting assignment to a Senate committee.
4/9/25 – BIG NEWS! HB 3372-5 passed out of the House Committee of Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources and Water this morning! On to the House Floor for a vote!
4/7/25 –
HEARING HAPPENED THIS MORNING – Thank you to everyone who testified!
- Possible outcomes: bill dies, moved to rules, sent to a floor vote them referred to either W&M or a Senate policy committee
So what’s in the bill?
- We are supportive of the -5 amendment
- ½ acre garden can be used in part or whole for commercial growing, 3,000 gal/day limit regardless of use
- Irrigation for half acre plus currently allowed commercial cannot exceed 5,000 gal/day
- Cannabis is excluded
3/31/25 –
- #1 Priority: Submit written testimony
- The sponsor has not posted the amendment to OLIS yet
- We are anticipating a ½ acre commercial garden allowance with a gallon cap
- No registration or metering at this time
- the allowance would be within current exemptions, not on top of them.
3/24/25 –
- HEARING SCHEDULED – Monday April 7 8AM in the House Ag committee
- Very limited time for in person testimony so we have already lined up a panel of experts and farmers (Water League, State Grange, PLUG, OFMA, and 4 farmers from around the state!)
- Submit written testimony
3/17/25 –
- Stay tuned for a hearing and work session in House Ag (must occur next week or week after next).
- Thank you for your help at rally day, your voices have made a huge difference and we are excited about the direction.
3/10/25 –
- Met with 42 legislators on this bill for rally day 3.4.25
- Using the connection made to try to elevate the issue and get us a hearing
3/3/25 –
- Message from FoFF moving forward:
- We need to find ways to have more farmers, not less.
- Given the scarcity of water rights and rising land costs, natural resource management decisions should have a holistic approach when thinking about the future we want.
2/24/25 –
- THIS IS ONLY ABOUT DOMESTIC WELLS FOR COMMERCIAL IRRIGATION, NOT MAKING CHANGES TO EXISTING WATER RIGHTS
- Placeholder bill introduced in House Ag (HB 3372)
2/10/25 –
- House version HB 3372
2/3/25 –
- Placeholder bill introduced in House Committee on Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources and Water
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
Since Fall 2023, 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.
Oregon needs to stand up for our communities and our working lands. Farmland Prices in Oregon are skyrocketing, we are losing more small farms each year, EFU zoned land cannot get water rights to remain in production and is vulnerable to rezoning and development. Right now the water use on a ½ acre and/or not exceeding 5000 gal/day is legal, it is just the commerce that is not.
OWRD estimates that all the domestic wells (88% of the number of wells in OR) in the state use only 4% of the groundwater pumped out of the ground for any reason, while irrigation water rights holders (7% of the wells) use 82% of the water pumped out of the ground for any reason. These are the smallest users in the system and account for a tiny portion of overall use. It is time to allow small farmers to feed their communities and support themselves within the reasonable exempt uses we already have.
SOLUTION
We have the opportunity to pass a law to change this and we need your support. HB 3372A would allow folks to use their ½ acre for commercial or personal use (lawn, flowers, food, etc.) with a daily gallon limit of 3,000 gal/day in irrigation. Folks can also still use the commercial exemption for other farm things (like washing your produce for market, making farm direct value added products, etc) as long as the commercial use and irrigation add up to 5,000 gal/day (the current limit for commercial or industrial use on domestic wells). This solution does not increase water usage because it is entirely contained within current exemptions and does not create unfair competitive advantages because it is limited to production on ½ acre.
This is our chance to increase agricultural and rural economic opportunity without increasing water use. Help us pass HB 3372A and allow people to sell food and farm products grown within the exemptions of domestic wells. We have found a true compromise solution here and have bipartisan and broad support for this concept. We have the opportunity to hand the power to feed us back to our communities. We need more farmers in Oregon, and this gives small folks a chance to start.
MORE INFORMATION/RESOURCES
VIEW OUR SLIDE SHOW (these were used for our Community Water Meetings around the state)
Watch our Statewide Community Water Meeting –