WaterWatch of Oregon, Inc. v. Water Resources Commission

112 P.3d 443, 199 Or. App. 598, 2005 Ore. App. LEXIS 620
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMay 18, 2005
DocketA119779
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 112 P.3d 443 (WaterWatch of Oregon, Inc. v. Water Resources Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
WaterWatch of Oregon, Inc. v. Water Resources Commission, 112 P.3d 443, 199 Or. App. 598, 2005 Ore. App. LEXIS 620 (Or. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

*601 DEITS, J. pro tempore

Petitioners seek review of two sets of rules that the Water Resources Commission (commission) adopted in September 2002. OAR 690-505-0400 to 690-505-0630; OAR 690-521-0100 to 690-521-0600. Those rules govern the commission’s decision to grant groundwater permits in the Deschutes River Basin. One set of rules amended the Deschutes Basin Program, a water management and use program, to allow for the appropriation of groundwater in the basin and to establish mitigation requirements. The other set of rules provides for the establishment of mitigation banks and mitigation credits in the basin. On review, petitioners assert that the commission exceeded its statutory authority in promulgating those rules. See ORS 183.400(4)(b) (providing that “[t]he court shall declare the rule invalid only if’ it determines that the rule “[e]xceeds the statutory authority of the agency[.]”). Specifically, petitioners contend that the rules violate various statutes governing (1) scenic waterways, see ORS 390.805-390.925; (2) groundwater rights, see ORS 537.505-537.795; and (3) instream water rights, see ORS 537.332-537.360. For the reasons that we will explain, we conclude that the challenged rules are invalid.

We begin with the issue of petitioners’ standing to seek judicial review. Petitioners are several entities and individuals. Pursuant to ORS 183.400, “[t]he validity of any rule may be determined upon a petition by any person to the Court of Appeals in the manner provided for review of orders in contested cases.” See Lovelace v. Board of Parole (A109609), 183 Or App 283, 286-89, 51 P3d 1269 (2002) (reasoning that statutory standing under ORS 183.400 is not limited to persons who are adversely affected or aggrieved by the agency’s action and holding that, under ORS 183.400, any person has statutory standing to challenge the validity of a rule). In this case, Roger Bachman, a flyfisherman on the Deschutes River system for the past 40 years, is one of the individual petitioners. We conclude that he has statutory standing to challenge the validity of the rules.

In addition to statutory standing, a petitioner must also have constitutional standing — that is, a petitioner must *602 demonstrate that a decision in the case will have a practical effect on his or her rights. Kellas v. Dept. of Corrections, 190 Or App 331, 334, 78 P3d 1250 (2003), rev allowed, 337 Or 282 (2004) (for purposes of constitutional standing, “a petitioner seeking to challenge a rule under ORS 183.400 must demonstrate that he or she has a legally recognized interest at stake and that the relief sought — validation or invalidation of an administrative rule — would have a practical effect on that interest”); see also Doty v. Coos County, 185 Or App 233, 59 P3d 50 (2002), clarified on recons, 186 Or App 580, 64 P3d 1150 (2003) (holding that a petitioner in a judicial review from the Land Use Board of Appeals had constitutional standing because the land use decision would affect her use and enjoyment of a nearby estuary that she used for passive recreation). Under certain circumstances, a petitioner may submit evidence demonstrating his or her constitutional standing for the first time on judicial review. Friends of Eugene v. City of Eugene, 195 Or App 20, 22, 28, 30, 96 P3d 1256 (2004) (holding that the petitioner could demonstrate its constitutional standing for the first time on judicial review of an order of the Land Use Board of Appeals because the need to do so first arose when the petitioner sought to invoke the court’s jurisdiction on judicial review).

In this case, Bachman’s affidavit accompanied the petition for judicial review. In that affidavit, he avers, in part:

“3. In 1974 my family, together with another family, purchased some land on the Lower Deschutes River for a fishing camp. Over the past twenty eight years my family and I have spent a lot of time using and enjoying the property by flyfishing the Deschutes, marveling in the splendor of the river and the native fish and wildlife that inhabit the river and boating the river. Through the years we have shared this wonderful experience with many guests.
“4. Since purchasing the property I have watched flow levels and stream temperature in the Deschutes River get closer and closer to levels that are harmful for salmon and trout. Diminished streamflows have a direct and adverse effect on my use and enjoyment of my property because it destroys habitat needed for wild fish. Diminishment of streamflows in the river system below those flows needed for these important river values threatens to deprive me of *603 the enjoyment of these activities with my children, as well as deprive my children and their children of activities centered upon the wonders of a free flowing river system such as the Deschutes River.
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“8. I participated in the administrative proceedings surrounding the final adoption of the rules being challenged in the above captioned litigation. I provided comments on drafts of the rule. I believe the rules will result in the ultimate diminishment of streamflows needed for the Deschutes River system, including those segments that I have dedicated so much of my time to protect.”

Based on those averments, we conclude that Bachman has constitutional standing.

Because Bachman has statutory and constitutional standing and because he and the other petitioners make the same arguments on review, it is immaterial whether the other petitioners have standing, and we do not consider that issue. Barton v. City of Lebanon, 193 Or App 114, 118, 118 n 2, 88 P3d 323 (2004). For that reason, as we address the merits of the rule challenge, we use the term “petitioner” to refer only to Bachman.

On review, petitioner asserts that the commission exceeded its statutory authority in (1) amending the Deschutes Basin Program to allow the appropriation of groundwater in the basin and establishing mitigation requirements, OAR 690-505-0400 to 690-505-0630, and (2) promulgating rules governing mitigation credits as well as the establishment of mitigation banks in the basin, OAR 690-521-0100 to 690-521-0600. Petitioner makes three basic challenges to the rules.

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Bluebook (online)
112 P.3d 443, 199 Or. App. 598, 2005 Ore. App. LEXIS 620, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waterwatch-of-oregon-inc-v-water-resources-commission-orctapp-2005.