March 10, 2017
CapitalPress.com
3
Washington groups work to reduce rural well restrictions
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — More than two
dozen organizations, including
the Washington Farm Bureau,
have joined a “fix Hirst” cam-
paign, urging legislators to pass a
bill to restart rural homebuilding
halted by a state Supreme Court
ruling.
The push to void the court’s 6-3
decision in Whatcom County vs.
Hirst, which placed new restric-
tions on the drilling of domestic
wells, comes midway through the
legislative session.
The
Republican-led
Sen-
ate has passed legislation sup-
ported by the Farm Bureau and
others in the “fix Hirst” camp,
including builders, real estate
agents and lenders. Meanwhile,
two bills in the Democratic-con-
trolled House have bogged down
and may fail this week to meet a
deadline to be passed over to the
Senate.
One House bill is similar to the
Senate bill, while the other mea-
sure — favored by tribes and envi-
ronmental groups — seeks to carry
out the court’s decision. Elements
of either bill could be worked into
the Senate proposal.
Evan Sheffels, the Farm Bu-
reau’s associate director of govern-
Courtesy of Building Industry Association of Washington
Members of organizations affected by a Washington Supreme Court decision
that halted the drilling of wells for homes hold bottles of water during a demon-
stration Feb. 28 in front of the Temple of Justice in Olympia.
mental relations, said Tuesday that
he’s hopeful the Legislature will
pass a “fix Hirst” bill.
Lawmakers have heard unusual-
ly emotional testimony from peo-
ple blocked from building homes.
“The politics will get hotter and
harder for legislators if they don’t
solve this problem,” Sheffels said.
The Hirst decision stemmed
from a lawsuit by environmental-
ists against Whatcom County’s
planning under the Growth Man-
agement Act.
The court ruled in October that
the county and individual landown-
ers had to prove each new domestic
well would not harm existing water
uses, including minimum flows for
fish.
The decision upset the long-
standing practice of allowing
new domestic wells, which con-
sume about 1 percent of the wa-
ter in Washington, according to
the Department of Ecology.
Tribes and environmentalists
defend the ruling as sound envi-
ronmental policy and protective of
senior water rights.
The Farm Bureau and others
say the ruling robbed landowners
of their dream of building rural
homes.
Ecology, the agency that man-
ages water resources, has yet to an-
nounce support for any bill.
Ecology water resources man-
ager Dave Christensen said Tues-
day the department will not offer
its own proposal.
“We’re attempting to find com-
mon ground among the various
proposals,” he said. “We believe
building homes can be balanced
with protection of in-stream re-
sources.”
Senate Bill 5239 passed by a
28-21 vote and has been sent to the
House Agriculture and Natural Re-
sources Committee.
The bill would restore the state’s
pre-Hirst policy of allowing new
domestic wells. In areas with water
shortages, Ecology could mitigate
potential harm for fish with proj-
ects such as restoring wetlands.
The provision would void another
Supreme Court decision that ruled
such mitigation projects couldn’t
substitute for taking water from
streams.
“We believe the Warnick bill
would solve the problem for most
of the people who could have built
before Hirst and who can’t now,”
Sheffels said.
The bill’s prime sponsor, Moses
Lake Republican Judy Warnick,
noted that dissenting justices said
the Hirst decision placed a “mas-
sive” and “insurmountable” burden
on rural landowners who want to
build homes.
Sen. John McCoy, D-Tulalip,
called the bill “eminent domain on
water.”
“It undercuts current water
law,” he said. “It will allow some-
one (by) just buying a piece of
property to take water away from
someone else,” he said.
OSU small farms survey asks
producers what they want to learn
Capital Press
Oregon State University’s
novel small farms program
is asking producers to help
guide where it goes next.
The program is part of
OSU Extension and offers
classes, workshops and train-
ing in the Willamette Valley,
Southern Oregon and the Co-
lumbia River Gorge. Associ-
ate Professor Melissa Fery
and Assistant Professor Amy
Garrett are asking small farm-
ers to take an online survey
that will gauge interest in var-
ious topics.
The survey asks farmers
which production topics in-
terest them, ranging from pas-
ture and grazing management
to organic certification, and
from fruit, nuts and berries to
small grains and diversified
vegetables.
Another survey question
asks farmers if they are in-
terested in selling directly
to schools, hospitals and re-
tirement communities. Food
system activists believe insti-
tutional buying is an untapped
market for many small and
mid-size producers, hampered
in part by consolidation, stor-
age, processing and distribu-
tion problems.
Other survey questions
cover business development
and agritourism. Another asks
respondents if they want to
learn more about growing
fruit and vegetables without
supplemental irrigation; Gar-
rett conducted a “dry farm-
ing” trial at OSU.
The survey also asks farm-
ers to rate their interest in
learning about livestock and
forage topics and woodland
management topics. The latter
include tree planting, riparian
management and timber har-
vesting.
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