There was good news about Oregon water issues last week, but you might have missed it because it was easier to focus on the bad news.

Both the bad news and the good news came from the same source: A report from Oregon State University's Institute for Water and Watersheds on a series of roundtable meetings the institute held last year around the state.

The bad news is that most of the participants in the five sessions believed that the state would have problems ensuring adequate supplies of water in 20 years' time. That gloomy assessment is even more sobering, considering that the roundtable meetings tended to attract people who already had been thinking long and hard about water issues in the state.

But the good news is worth considering as well: The same people worried about Oregon's water supply also have been pondering potential solutions. And it gets better: The ideas being tossed around in the roundtables were heavy on local and regional solutions. In fact, according to Michael Campana, the director of the OSU Institute for Water and Watersheds, participants were leery of one-size-fits-all solutions being imposed by state and federal authorities.

The idea that people around the state are ready to take on more responsibility in finding water solutions - and are already working to find common ground with others - is encouraging.

In the words of a participant at the roundtable held in Ontario: "We need to do it ourselves. We need to start local and include those impacted physically and economically by water use."

Solutions kicked around at the roundtables included water reuse and recycling; water-conservation tax credits; water storage and conservation; local integrated water planning; and interstate compacts, among other approaches.

As the conversation continues, you can be sure more ideas will be added.

Results from the roundtables are being made available to state officials and could figure in some legislative proposals.

The results also might be useful to the Benton County officials who held their own series of meetings last year to talk about water issues in the county.

Typically, as Campana noted last week, when we talk about water, it's not too long until we start fussing about water. To be holding this level of conversation about this tough issue with only a minimum of fuss - well, that's good news indeed.