Vicki Walker, director of the Oregon Department of State Lands, told the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources, and Water on April 28 that the department supports Senate Bill 74 A and that the bill would add a second, optional method for declaring waterways "title navigable" and therefore state-owned.

"We are in support of Senate Bill 74 a," Walker said, adding the bill preserves existing options and was developed with stakeholder input. Walker said the department’s interest is “protecting the existing waterway for the public trust uses.”

The bill would let the state, with an adjacent property owner’s agreement, treat the current riverbed and bank to the ordinary high water line as state-owned. Chris Castelli, deputy director of the Land Management Division at DSL, told the committee that current law requires detailed, time-consuming mapping of river channel changes since statehood to determine ownership. That approach requires distinguishing gradual change (accretion) from sudden change (avulsion), a process Castelli said is costly, technically complex and creates uncertainty for property owners and the state.

"To declare a waterway navigable for title and Oregon owned, existing law requires the state to exactly map all the gradual and sudden changes that have happened since statehood," Castelli said. He illustrated the issue with historical and current channel maps of the Rogue River and said the requirement can leave the state owning dry land or private parties owning parts of the riverbed depending on how past channel changes are classified.

Under the option SB 74 A would add, the department could elect to treat all channel movement as accretion for the purpose of mapping the legal boundary (so ownership follows the current physical boundary), but only when an adjacent landowner agrees. Castelli and Walker emphasized the bill does not eliminate the existing mapping process and that landowners may still choose the current, more detailed route if they prefer.

The amended bill also clarifies several technical points, the DSL witnesses said: the option would not apply to lakes (lake ownership is governed by a different statute); exchanges negotiated under the bill would not leave mineral rights with the state; and the law would allow the state to offer land exchanges that may favor landowners’ monetary value in order to secure public ownership of riverbeds.

Several legislators asked for clarifications about definitions and process. Representative McLean asked whether terms like "ordinary high water" or "property owner preference" are defined in the bill; Castelli said "ordinary high water" is defined in statute (chapter 274) and that other terms are not newly defined by the bill. Representative Marsh and others pressed about how the department would handle long rivers with multiple landowners; Castelli and Walker said the department’s intent is not to force any owner into the new option but also not to let a single landowner indefinitely delay a navigability determination.

Stakeholder witnesses who testified in support included Sarah Satimo, chief of staff to Senator Jeff Golden; Bob Olson of the Northwest Steelheaders; and James Fraser, Oregon policy director at Trout Unlimited. Fraser noted the bill creates an additional pathway to resolve ownership uncertainty and said it can benefit both the public and landowners by clearing clouds on title and improving access.

The committee closed the public hearing on SB 74 A after questions and did not take a committee vote at this hearing. DSL staff offered to provide committee members a short comparison of the existing navigability process and the new option in SB 74 A, and they identified the Rogue River and the North Santiam River as examples of waterways with outstanding or ongoing navigability issues.