Better late than never

The Oregonian today has a great front page story documenting the significant challenges Oregon faces tracking water use, making sure that we're not taking too much water from our rivers and underground aquifers, stealing a precious legacy from our children and neighbors.

Of course, the article would've been more useful earlier in the session rather than after deals were cut and decisions largely made. 

The Water Resources Department has long been grossly underfunded, and big boosts in 2007 just scratched the surface of counteracting that. Now, WRD is facing big budget cuts. Some help is on the way in boosted fees to recover the costs of processing permits. But a real boost in fees that would make water users pay their fare share -- given that water rights last forever -- still languishes.

Check out the article for yourself.

And let your legislators know that they should take responsibility to give the Water Resources enough money to do their job -- our families are counting on it.