Water Availability

Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are working together to estimate groundwater recharge across the state.

The Willamette River Basin reflects the conflicting water demands between humans and ecosystems—particularly salmon— and the challenge resource managers face throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The Issue: Decades of declining groundwater levels in the Walla Walla River Basin (WWRB), which spans Oregon and Washington, are affecting instream flows for threatened and culturally important fish populations and water availability for competing interests across state lines. The public and state resource management agencies have begun implementing efforts to stabilize groundwater levels and...

With the ever-increasing rate of utilization of and competition for water (particularly during periods of drought) accurate, current water-use information is of considerable value. This is particularly so in determining future water availability in hydrologically critical areas and for making sound resource-management decisions. For the Oregon Water Science Center, a viable water-use data...

Welcome to the Willamette River Study page. Here you will find links to USGS research for the Willamette River and the Willamette River Basin.

Groundwater monitoring in the Deschutes Basin shows water-level declines are larger than might be expected from climate variations alone, raising questions regarding the influence of groundwater pumping, canal lining, and other human influences.

The Columbia Plateau Regional Aquifer System (CPRAS) covers about 44,000 square miles of eastern Oregon and Washington and western Idaho. The primary aquifers are basalts of the Columbia River Basalt Group and overlying basin-fill sediments. Groundwater availability issues in the basin include: 1) widespread water-level declines caused by pumping, 2) reduction in base flow to rivers and associated...