ORS 543.720: Payment of annual fee; accompanying statement; penalty for nonpayment of fees or nonfiling; lien; foreclosure; effect of filing excessive claim; computation of horsepower.

(1) The fees provided for in ORS 543.710 shall be paid to the Water Resources Commission in advance, and shall be accompanied by a written statement showing the extent of the claim. The statement shall set forth the name and address of the claimant; the name of the stream from which the water is appropriated or claimed for power development; a description of the 40 acres, or smallest legal subdivision in which the point of diversion and point of return are located; the date of the right as claimed; the maximum amount of water claimed expressed in cubic feet per second of time; the total average fall utilized under such claim; the manner of developing power; and the use to which the power is applied. If the regular flow is supplemented by water stored in a reservoir, the location of the reservoir, its capacity in acre-feet and the stream from which it is filled and fed, should be given, also the date of the right as claimed, for storage purposes. (2) If any claimant fails or neglects to file the statement or to pay the fees within the time specified, the fees due and payable shall be the amount specified in ORS 543.710 increased 25 percent. The state shall have a preference lien for the fees due, together with interest at the rate of 10 percent per annum from date of delinquency, upon the property of the claimant used, or necessary for use, in the development of the right or claim, together with any improvements erected on the property for such development. Upon notice from the commission, the Attorney General shall foreclose the lien and collect the amount due, as provided in this section, in the same manner as other liens on real property are foreclosed. (3) The filing of a claim to water in excess of the amount to which the claimant is legally entitled shall not operate to vest in the claimant any right to the use of such excess water, nor shall the payment of the annual license fee provided for in ORS 543.710 operate to vest in any claimant any right to the use of such water beyond the amount to which claimant is legally entitled. The filing of any such claim to water shall be conclusive evidence as to the abandonment by the claimant of all rights to water for power purposes in excess of the claim as filed. (4) The amount of theoretical water horsepower upon which fees shall be paid under the provisions of this section and ORS 543.710 shall be computed by multiplying the maximum amount of water claimed, expressed in cubic feet per second, by the average total fall utilized, expressed in feet, and dividing the product by 8.8. [Amended by 1985 c.673 §163]