Anyone pursuing a new groundwater use in the DGWSA, that requires a water right permit, must mitigate for their groundwater use. The Deschutes Groundwater Mitigation Program provides a set of tools that groundwater permit applicants can use to establish new groundwater uses within the DGWSA while still protecting, through mitigation, scenic waterway flows, instream water rights and other surface water rights. Mitigation for a new groundwater permit must be provided for the life of that permit and subsequent certificate.
Mitigation for groundwater permit applications is provided by a mitigation project(s). A mitigation project is a completed project that results in mitigation water. Mitigation water is water that can be legally protected instream.
A groundwater permit applicant may obtain the mitigation water necessary to meet their mitigation obligation by either completing their own mitigation project or by obtaining mitigation credits from someone (mitigation bank or other credit holder) that has already completed a mitigation project. A mitigation credit is an accounting unit for mitigation water. One acre-foot of mitigation water is equivalent to one mitigation credit.
The rules identify several types of projects that may be used to establish mitigation water:
- Instream Leases (may only be used by an authorized Mitigation Bank to establish mitigation water/credits)
- Time-Limited Instream Transfers (may only be used by an authorized Mitigation Bank to establish mitigation water/credits)
- Permanent Instream Transfers
- Allocations of Conserved Water
- Aquifer Recharge
- Releases of Stored Water from an existing reservoir
The Department evaluates each proposed project to determine the amount of mitigation water established by completion of the project and the location (zone of impact) in which any mitigation water made available by a project may be used to satisfy a mitigation obligation.