The Oregon Water Resources Congress (OWRC) has promoted the protection and use of water rights, as well as the supervision of water resources, since 1912. The OWRC represents local governments that provide irrigation water by promoting legislation to meet the needs of its members. The OWRC began as the Oregon Irrigation Congress and later broadened to include the Oregon Drainage Association, becoming the Oregon Reclamation Congress. After also merging with the Oregon Association of Soil Conservation Districts, the name was changed again to the OWRC to better reflect the range of government membership that it represented.