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10 CapitalPress.com April 28, 2017 Washington Inslee stays out of rural well issue; special session begins Clipped response disappoints senator By DON JENKINS Capital Press OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay In- slee said April 21 that he hasn’t studied Senate-passed legisla- tion to reopen rural Washing- ton to well drilling, dismaying the bill’s sponsor. Speaking to reporters, In- slee scolded lawmakers for failing to pass a two-year bud- get. The 105-day regular ses- sion ended Sunday, and Inslee called a special session that be- gan Monday to continue work on the budget. Lawmakers could take up other subjects. The Repub- lican-led Senate has cited responding to the state Su- preme Court’s Hirst ruling as must-pass legislation this Don Jenkins/Capital Press Gov. Jay Inslee pauses during a press conference April 21 in Olym- pia. Inslee said he has not looked “in detail” at a Senate proposal to reopen rural Washington to well drilling. The proposal’s main sponsor said she was disappointed by the response. year. The decision, issued more than three months be- fore the Legislature con- vened in January, threatens to effectively shut down the drilling of new household wells across the state. Tribes and environmen- tal groups oppose the Senate bill, arguing it would nullify the court’s decision and repeal new protections for fish. The Democratic-controlled House has yet to pass an alternative. Asked whether he could sup- port the Senate’s Hirst bill, In- slee gave a short reply. “I haven’t looked at it in detail. I can’t answer that,” he said. The Senate’s bill’s prime sponsor, Moses Lake Republi- can Judy Warnick, said that a farmer called her Friday morn- ing concerned that he can’t drills wells for worker housing or his son’s home on the fam- ily farm. “For the governor to not have studied this bill in detail by the 103rd day of the session is very disappointing,” said Warnick, chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Commit- tee. “This is one of the biggest things standing in the way of the rural economy.” Senate Bill 5239 would restore the Department of Ecology’s authority to allow new household wells. The court ruled 6-3 that Ecology had failed to ensure new wells won’t harm other uses, includ- ing stream flows for fish. Under the ruling, each landowner must prove through a hydrological study that the new well won’t divert ground- water or surface water from somewhere else. Dissenting justices said the requirement was too much for individuals to bear. Two similar proposals by House Democrats would cre- ate committees in each wa- tershed to oversee projects to keep new wells from affecting streams and other wells. The projects would be funded by new building fees. Neither proposal has been put to a vote. Rep. Kristine Lytton, D-Anacortes, said House Democrats are working to come up with one proposal. “I think there is a keen in- terest to have a Hirst solution by the end of the session,” she said. Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Or- cas Island, said lawmakers should protect current water users, as well as letting land- owners drill wells. “We are working diligently on this,” he said. Warnick agreed lawmakers will have to address the cu- mulative effect of new wells. “I think we can do it without additional fees,” Warnick said. Builders, lenders, real es- tate agents and farm groups are rallying grass-roots support for the Senate bill. The Washing- ton Farm Bureau, Washington Association of Wheat Grow- ers and the Washington State Grange joined the coalition, called Fix Hirst. Rail bill aided by state Farm Bureau passes Environmental group warns about losing farmland By DON JENKINS Dan Wheat/Capital Press Workers tie nursery trees to white fiberglass stakes at Helios Nursery near Quincy, Wash., on April 12. From the distance it looks like a white sea. Nursery switches to white fiberglass stakes By DAN WHEAT Capital Press QUINCY, Wash. — It looks like a white sea off Whitetrail Road, southeast of Quincy. As you get closer you see heads and shoulders of a few workers. Get even closer, and you see they are tending young fruit trees next to white stakes. It’s the home 60-acre op- eration of Helios Nursery, which also grows trees on 100 acres near Othello and rootstock in greenhouses in McMinnville, Ore. The workers are tying and adjusting stake ties of apple and cherry trees budded to rootstock last year and now growing for digging this fall and winter storage before shipment to orchards next spring. The stakes help the Pre- mier Honeycrisp, Wildfire Gala, Aztec Fuji and several varieties of red cherries grow straight and serve as support in wind. There are other nurseries in the area but what makes this one stand out is the white, fiberglass stakes. The others have bamboo or steel. “We went to fiberglass be- cause the quality of the bam- boo from China over the last 10 years keeps going down, down, down,” said Tye Flem- ing, Helios owner. Helios produces more than 1 million trees annually so it needs more than 1 million stakes. Bamboo stakes cost $70,000 per million and once lasted two years. But the bamboo is being cut younger and greener and newer Geneva rootstock is re- quiring more moisture so the stakes are only lasting a year, Fleming said. Fiberglass stakes cost sub- stantially more but are sup- posed to last 15 years. Flem- ing figures they will pay for themselves in three to five years. Cameron Nursery in Elto- pia, between Othello and Pas- co, uses fiberglass stakes and they’ve been used in Willa- mette Valley ornamental nurs- eries for years, Fleming said. Field work has been de- layed more than a month this spring by snow and rain caus- ing ground to be too wet to work, he said. “But we’ll start planting this week and it all evens out,” he said. Capital Press OLYMPIA — State law- makers have approved relax- ing restrictions on industrial development near short-line railroads in rural Eastern Washington, a move the Farm Bureau says will help farm communities. House Bill 1504, which has yet to be signed by Gov. Jay Inslee, would allow rail-dependent industries to locate on land that may now be off-limits because of the state’s Growth Management Act. The act calls for agri- cultural land to be preserved and for industrial develop- ment to occur in areas with urban services. The legislation stemmed from a dispute over indus- trial development in Clark County in southwest Wash- ington. Lawmakers expand- ed the bill to apply to coun- ties east of the Cascades. The bill still applies only to Clark County in Western Washington. The bill’s most outspoken opponent, the environmental group Futurewise, argued that the legislation would lead to urban sprawl and allow farmland to be paved over for industrial develop- ment. The Farm Bureau, how- ever, joined business and labor groups in supporting the bill. The Washington As- sociation of Wheat Growers also backed the bill. “We appreciate what this bill brings to the rural areas of the state,” Farm Bureau Courtesy of Clark County Public Works A train travels on the publicly owned Chelatchie Prairie Railroad in Clark County in southwest Wash- ington. A land-use dispute there led to legislation that could open more land in rural Eastern Wash- ington to industrial development. An environmental group warns that farmland is at risk, but the state Farm Bureau and Washington Association of Wheat Growers back the legislation as good for farm economies. associate director of govern- ment relations Mark Streuli said. “We understand there are times some of this rural land has to be used to facili- tate getting our commodities to the short-line railroads.” Futurewise remains con- cerned the bill will decrease farmland, the organization’s state policy director, Bryce Yadon, said Thursday. “This bill is a way to de-designate farmland for other purposes,” he said. “We question why we’re taking the one thing a grow- ing industry (agriculture) needs.” Although some Dem- ocrats opposed the bill, it passed by a comfortable margin in the Democrat- ic-controlled House, as well as the Republican-led Sen- ate. The bill won final ap- proval from the House on Wednesday. Washington has 23 short-line railroads, includ- ing several that cater to farmers and food proces- sors in Eastern Washington. House Environment Committee Chairman Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Burien, said the bill will create opportunities to increase their use. “It will bring industrial development in places that need it,” he said. 17-1/#6
