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DateNameCompanyComment
 Laurie O'ConnorN/AAs an exempt well resident (both domestic and stock well) in this area of critical decline, I request all transfers in our basin be stopped until the applicants and OWRD can PROVE no potential further declines in our aquifers! Every commercial development in this area will further injure our ability to live in our rural homes, and certainly end local livestock operations. As a lay person, understanding these applications can be very challenging. From the ground, living here and knowing the area and history, several questions come to mind on applications such as these. Typically, an irrigator seeks to transfer POA AFTER they have lost a well or two, or the costs of deepening no longer serve their profit margin. Speaking to neighbors, there is also some question as to the continuity of beneficial use on the original POA. Who monitors year-by-year, or even decade-by-decade? Not a local harried Water Master! There is a chance the original well(s) was/were technically abandoned. There may also be some challenge to whether these transfers are technically even in the same aquifer. The other sad fact is that OWRD has never actively sought information about injury to local wells anywhere, and certainly not adjacent to this transfer. Locals do not know they have recourse through filing reports on injured or dry wells. In fact, in the past two years, two historically sound stock wells and one domestic well in this area have completely failed. Another neighbor is currently experiencing drastic drawdown in their historic stock well, and fully expect total failure soon. All are being injured, but none trust an "agency" to protect them. How to change the culture in OWRD to embrace a sustainable future for our water? How can private citizens possibly find justice and science against the economic opportunism of heavily-lawyered corporations? The fact that Harney Basin has been in a critical water study for six years now and yet OWRD does nothing to decrease extraction is appalling. I hope that those of you reviewing these permits have the ability to serve science.
 Ben McCanna  Transfers number 13924. I was wondering what injury to other users means? In this area we have found out that a number of wells have gone dry or had to be deepened. Does the agency look at how many wells have gone dry or had to be deepened in this area? If there are many wells that went dry or needing to be deepened, doesn't that show injuries to other water users? If this transfer goes through that will mean that new wells will be dug and a lot more water will be taken from this area, definately affecting other water users. 3/21/2022 Ben McCanna 60012 McCanna RD. Burns OR. 97720 Phone 541-589-0867