All water within the state from all sources of water supply belongs to the public.
ORS 537.110
Known as the Ground Water Act
The act spans §§ 537–537 (229 sections).
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case WaterWatch of Oregon v. Water Resources Dept. (2020)
Most recently applied in East Valley Water v. Water Resources Commission (August 2025)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Oregon State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Oregon statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.