Our Water Rights Team is here to help you understand Oregon water law and what it means to be a steward of the water.
By using water responsibly, you can protect the water rights on your property while contributing to the preservation of our precious water supply.
COID can help you understand the options available to you.
In Oregon, water rights must be fully and beneficially used at least once every five consecutive years.
If you are unable to irrigate on the ground or would like to skip a year of irrigating, there are several options below that you may consider to receive beneficial use.
- An irrigation water right is considered beneficially used when something is planted, irrigated, and producing.
- A beneficial use crop can be an alfalfa field, pasture, garden, or landscaped areas.
- Irrigation of native vegetation such as sagebrush, bunchgrass, or cheatgrass is not beneficial use of an irrigation water right.
- The District relies on you, the patron, to provide additional beneficial use information to assure our records are accurate.
- The instream lease program allows water rights to be temporarily leased to the Deschutes River. In return, the water right is provided beneficial use. This is a cooperative effort between COID, Deschutes River Conservancy and Oregon Water Resources Department.
- The water right receives Beneficial Use because the amount you enroll in the program helps improve stream flows in the Deschutes Basin and helps fish and wildlife habitat.
- Your delivery is reduced by how many acres you enroll in the program. The amount that is instreamed stays in the Deschutes River and is not diverted for irrigation. You must keep these acres dry and not apply irrigation water for the season the water is instreamed.
- The instream lease expires every Fall. If patrons want to continue instream use, contact COID by February 15th to renew.
- When the instream lease expires, the leased water returns to the property at the start-up of the next season. Patrons who instream 10 acres or more receive monetary compensation from DRC.
- The Temporary Transfer program allows a patron to temporarily transfer a portion or all the water right by leasing it to another patron for a one-year period.
- There is no fee to temporarily transfer the water off.
- The farmer receiving the water pays fees to COID for the use of the water and COID will credit a portion of those fees to the originating property owner. The farmer receiving the water is obligated to beneficially use the water on their land.
- Participation in the program is subject to water availability. Contact our team for more information.
- In the State of Oregon, water rights are mapped to a specific place of use. A patron may request to permanently transfer a portion or all the water rights from the mapped area to another location.
- Contact our team for more information.
- If you have land that is difficult to irrigate, or if you would like to permanently sever the water rights from the land, there is an option to sell all or a portion of the water to an approved COID buyer.
- Contact our team for more information.
Please contact COID to learn more about water rights on your property and beneficial use.
