Pinnacle Utilities, LLC v. Oregon Water Resources Department

An Oregon Circuit Court affirmed the Oregon Water Resources Department’s (OWRD’s) 2021 denial of a limited license application for use of groundwater for road construction or maintenance, general construction, and quasi-municipal use. OWRD stipulated that the application was the first in the Deschutes Basin for which OWRD determined “based on current declining groundwater levels, that ‘groundwater for the proposed use will not likely be available within the capacity of the groundwater resource; therefore, water is not available for the proposed use.’” The court’s decision noted an OWRD-U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study that identified “climate influences (i.e., changes in precipitation and recharge)” as a primary cause of groundwater level declines in the Basin, with the USGS attributing 60–70% of groundwater decline to climate. The court found that substantial evidence in the record supported OWRD’s determination that “groundwater declines have changed over time, and that the declines have gotten worse.” The court was not persuaded that denial of the application was inconsistent with any previously approved application but also found that even if the denial were inconsistent, any inconsistency was justified.

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