Good News – The Oregon Legislature is Not Trying to Meter Your Domestic Well

Let’s start with the key takeaway from this article right up front – the Oregon legislature is not trying to pass a bill that would require rural Oregonians to meter their domestic well. If you recently heard otherwise, rest easy – it isn’t going to happen. Now here’s the rest of the story.

Late last week, amendments were prepared for House Bill 3419, a bill that originally started out as a bill requiring the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) to study rules relating to water. This type of “study bill” is known as a placeholder bill, meaning that if the bill is going to advance, the original language will be removed from the bill and replaced with amended language to achieve a stated purpose.

Unfortunately, the amendments to House Bill 3419 were prepared quickly and without a thorough review. As a result, the amendments authorized (but did not require) OWRD to require all Oregon domestic well users to install meters on their wells, despite the fact that this has never been a requirement, and it has always been the policy of the State of Oregon to not require domestic well owners to report their water usage or obtain a water right.

The reason for the longstanding state policy is that a homeowner with a domestic well uses a very modest amount of water per day (somewhere in the average of 200 gallons/day). Domestic wells are not the cause of water shortages in Oregon, and in fact, a rural resident uses approximately the same amount of water each day as an urban resident.

When the committee chairs realized that the draft amendments required rural Oregonians to meter their domestic wells, they immediately informed the public that the draft amendments were not intended to do that, and that new amendments would be prepared to fix that issue. This was simply the result of trying to move too fast, something that happens frequently during the legislative session.

At this point, if the water supply to your home is a domestic well, you’re probably a little irritated by the draft amendment, but the committee has made it clear that the language was a mistake, and that they will not move forward with a plan to require you to meter your well.

This is good. As many of you know, if you want to start a fight in rural Oregon, go tell the families who live there that the government is going to force them to install a meter to measure their water use. It won’t go well.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that there’s only three reasons why the State of Oregon would ever consider metering rural wells. The first is that they want to start regulating the amount of water you use. The second is that they want to start taxing you for your water usage. The third, and most likely, is that they want to do both.

This is especially frustrating for rural Oregonians who get their domestic water from a well. When you have a well, you are solely responsible for your water. You can’t call the city or county if your well runs dry and you need to drill a new one, or the water is hard and has so much sulfur content that it isn’t potable, or your well pump burns out. When any of those things happen (or any of the other problems associated with a well), you’re on your own. If you want water, pull out your checkbook and fix the problem.

People who live in cities don’t have that problem. If they have a problem with the water supply, they look to the city to fix it, and the city does just that. In exchange for that service, they pay a monthly water bill and have a meter installed. Fair enough. But unlike a property owner who lives in town, there isn’t anyone from the government coming to bail out a rural resident with a well.

Since rural residents can’t call the local government to fix their water issues, why should they install a meter or pay a tax on their well?

More importantly, exempt domestic wells have never been a cause of the problem for a declining aquifer. Not surprisingly, cities often use groundwater to supply water to their residents, and those residents use approximately the same amount of water as a rural family. A dishwasher in town uses the same amount of water as a dishwasher in the country.

As the Oregon Groundwater Association notes, exempt domestic wells consume less than 4 percent of the water in Oregon, and almost all of that filters back into the ground to recharge the aquifer. Basically, rural residents are not and have never been the cause of groundwater shortages, but they’re an easy target for those wanting to blame someone else when an aquifer starts to decline.

This issue has been around for years and seems to come back every few years. It’s a bad idea every time – 2025 is no exception. But this year’s effort is the result of a genuine mistake that was immediately discovered and is being fixed. If something changes, we’ll let you know.

The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not represent the opinions or positions of any party represented by the OPOA Legal Center on any particular matter.