A new “water czar” would coordinate Oregon’s projects and policies related to water resources under a bill that’s being considered for next year’s legislative session.

Officially called the Interagency Water Officer, the official would lead water planning efforts in the governor’s office and negotiate with federal agencies, state governments and tribes on water issues.

The “legislative concept” of establishing the “water czar” may be introduced as a bill in 2023 on behalf of the House Agriculture, Land Use and Water Committee, which discussed the idea during a Dec. 7 hearing.

Rep. Ken Helm, D-Beaverton, told committee members this legislative concept and several others could be introduced next year as relatively uncontroversial fixes to the state’s water governance.

Helm, the committee’s interim chair, has in recent years increasingly focused on water scarcity, which he considers among the “top five” major issues facing Oregon. He’s cited the lack of cooperation among state agencies on water as a major impediment to dealing with the problem.

The “water czar,” as Helm has dubbed the position, would oversee high-level “policies, plans and projects” and coordinate data, budget decisions and permitting processes among state agencies.

Under this legislative concept, the Interagency Water Officer would also serve as the chair of the newly-created “strategic water management council,” which would set budget and investment priorities related to water, among other functions.

The council would consist of state agency directors from the Water Resources Department, Department of Agriculture, Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Forestry and several other departments that deal with water issues.

Another potential change to Oregon’s water administration is being considered by the committee’s vice-chair, Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane, who may introduce a bill to create a “Water Use Board of Appeals.”

Owens said the concept would be loosely based on the state’s Land Use Board of Appeals, which provides an opportunity to adjudicate disputes over zoning and similar issues before they wind up in court.

While such an appellate process would add another layer of government, Owens believes that WUBA would reduce the state’s backlog of administrative cases if the disputes were resolved according to a set schedule.

For example, the LUBA process sets deadlines for petitions, responses and evidence objections with the goal of reaching a decision in about four months.

“We have a good system we can learn from LUBA,” Owens said.

Representatives of wastewater treatment agencies urged the committee to take up legislation dedicated to increasing recycled water use for agriculture and conservation purposes.

Treated wastewater can help the supply and quality problems facing the state, but such projects struggle due to a lack of focused resources, said Susie Smith, executive director of the Oregon Association of Clean Water Agencies.

“This potential has not received a lot of attention,” she said. “There’s a great potential in this state to expand this resource.”

Though Oregon has several well-regarded water recycling projects, lawmakers shouldn’t read too much into those success stories, said Tracy Rainey, senior policy analyst for Clean Water Services, a utility serving Washington County.

“Innovative projects are seldom the easiest path and they can be a heavy regulatory lift,” Rainey said.

Proponents of water recycling want the committee to introduce a bill that would allow the DEQ and OWRD to remove “road blocks” to environmentally-sound projects, Smith said.

“Right now we don’t have a good tool kit for people to use,” she said.

Oregon would not need to reinvent the wheel because statutes elsewhere in the West, including California, Arizona and Colorado, have already been updated to better accommodate water recycling, Smith said.

“We can really look to other states because they have advanced water reuse further than Oregon has,” she said.