Subject to existing rights, and except as otherwise provided in ORS chapter 538, all waters within the state may be appropriated for beneficial use, as provided in the Water Rights Act and not otherwise; but nothing contained in the Water Rights Act shall be so construed as to take away or impair the vested right of any person to any water or to the use of any water.
ORS 537.120
Known as the Ground Water Act
The act spans §§ 537–537 (229 sections).
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case 308 Or. App. 177 - TPC, LLC 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.