Hi John,
I’m following up on my email about SB 1153 to give you an update: SB 1153 has still not been sent to Ways and Means, meaning that it is stuck in the legislature and needs help moving forward. We need your help to protect Oregon’s streams and rivers and get this bill moving. Will you reach out to your legislator today?
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Eliza Walton (she/they)
OLCV Coalition Director
P.S.: OLCV’s spring membership drive is going on now, click here to renew your membership and support important legislation, like SB 1153, getting across the finish line! |
Dear John,
Clean water, strong rivers, and healthy fish and wildlife are part of Oregon’s identity — yet many of our state’s outdated water laws are at odds with those values. Right now, with SB 1153, we have a chance to protect the public benefits our rivers provide: by tightening a dangerous loophole that currently allows the Oregon Water Resources Department to approve water right changes even if they hurt our streams. Will you send your legislators a message to pass SB 1153?
Right now, the state can approve applications to change existing water rights without any consideration of environmental harm. In other words, owners of water rights can modify how water is used without considering impacts to fish, wildlife, water quality, and recreation. Many of our streams are at risk of running dry, so reforms are critical for our shared water future.
That’s why we need your help now to pass SB 1153, which would require the Oregon Water Resources Department to consider potential streamflow impacts as part of its existing process for reviewing proposed water right changes (called “transfers”).
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There have been recent amendments made to SB 1153 that reflect months of hard-fought negotiations and narrow the bill to focus on non-municipal water changes with the highest risk of harm — moving streamflow diversions further upstream, and moving groundwater wells within ¼ mile of a stream. SB 1153 just made it out of committee and will now be moving through the Senate and House for votes in the weeks ahead, so it needs your help now. Please take a moment to tell your legislators that you support this commonsense bill, and they should too!
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Thank you for your support, |
Eliza Walton (she/they)
OLCV Coalition Director |
