Crooked River Water Rights
Current Status:
Active
Date Filed:
Mar 27, 2024
Case Title:
Upper Crooked River Conservationists and Shotgun Ranch, LLC v. Water Resources Department of the State of Oregon and Water Resources Commission of the State of Oregon
Staff attorney(s):
Andrew Missel
Client(s):
To Protect:
Fish in the Lower Crooked River
States:Oregon
Case Information:
February 11, 2025 — Advocates for the West won a victory to protect fish and wildlife in Oregon’s Crooked River. The Crook County Circuit Court rejected several ranchers’ attempt to invalidate the water right issued by the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) to protect flows for fish and wildlife in the lower Crooked River. The ranchers argued that OWRD lacked authority to issue the water right, but the Court disagreed.
Although the Court sent the matter back to OWRD to address a procedural issue, it confirmed that the water right is substantively valid. The water right at issue in this case, which Advocates for the West and our partners intervened to defend, is essential to ensure that flows in the lower Crooked River—all the way from Bowman Dam to Lake Billy Chinook—are protected for fish and wildlife.
September 20, 2024 — Advocates for the West filed a motion for summary judgment, also opposing petitioners’ motion for partial summary judgment.
March 27, 2024 — Representing WaterWatch of Oregon, Advocates for the West filed a motion to intervene in a state court water rights case to defend the Oregon Water Resources Department’s decision to grant a permit to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) allowing the release of water from Prineville Reservoir to support fish in the lower Crooked River.
The Crooked River is one of Oregon’s crown jewels, winding through Smith Rock State Park and miles of wilderness canyons, and providing habitat for prized redband trout and imperiled steelhead.
Area ranchers and irrigators mounted a legal challenge that would undermine the implementation of the Crooked River Act and delay legal protections for flows to protect fish in a 72-mile stretch of the Crooked River between Prineville Reservoir and Lake Billy Chinook. A key provision of the Crooked River Act directs BOR to store, release, and use water for downstream fish and wildlife “in accordance with Oregon state water law.”
Advocates for the West is intervening on the side of the State of Oregon, arguing that the permit granted by Oregon Water Resources Department is consistent with Oregon water law and necessary to carry out the Crooked River Act.
