B5
THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, NOvEmbER 2, 2019
Water: ‘We don’t know what’s
going to happen in five to 10 years’
Continued from Page b2
River, whose mission is to aggressively pur-
sue water solutions and find new supply for
the basin, approved the company’s original
trust water rights agreement in 2016.
Peterson credited Tom Tebb, the office’s
leader, for helping develop his concept.
“We’re trying to facilitate the movement
of water to its highest, best use,” Tebb said.
Other parts of the agency have closely
scrutinized Crown’s water transfers, over-
turning local water decisions that were favor-
able to Crown. Ecology also opposed par-
ent company Crown West Realty in court
when it attempted to place millions of dol-
lars of water into trust from wells at another
of its real estate holdings, a Spokane indus-
trial park.
Crown’s activities have stirred internal
debate within Ecology.
“Overall, I think it is not a good sign
that our Trust/Banking programs attracted
Wall Street attention,” wrote Ying Fu, of the
agency’s Spokane office, in an email thread
about Crown Columbia’s Methow deal. Fu
expressed concern that profits would be made
on water held in “state sponsored ‘banks.’”
Dave Christensen, Ecology’s water
resources policy and program development
manager, last winter commissioned the Uni-
versity of Washington’s Evans School of
Public Policy to study water marketing.
“We are hearing (and have) concerns that
continued aggressive acquisition and market-
ing will cross the threshold into outright spec-
ulation (if it hasn’t already gotten there),”
Christensen wrote in a memo to staffers.
Christensen said in August the agency was
investigating whether the trust water-rights
program was contributing to potential spec-
ulation or being used for purposes outside of
the Legislature’s original intent to improve
stream flows and to allow water-rights real-
location. The department also is evaluating
water banking, he said, and would make pol-
icy recommendations on the programs next
year.
Jewell, the policy adviser for Washing-
ton’s counties, said he grew concerned over
how water markets were operating in his last
job as a Kittitas County commissioner. In
his county about a decade ago, as develop-
ment boomed, local, private water markets
were able to command high prices without
much competition. Jewell helped the county
start its own water bank to compete and
lower prices. He said the Ecology Depart-
ment needs to be more proactive as compa-
nies acquire and consolidate resources.
“Ecology has really been a spectator in
watching these water markets develop, and
I honestly think pretty naive, in not tak-
ing a more active role in managing the sys-
tem,” Jewell said. “If they don’t get ahead
of this developing market, they could find
themselves on the outside looking in pretty
quickly.”
She had worried for years that outsiders
would come for the valley’s water.
Crown’s draft application, published
online, sought to transfer the ranching fam-
ily’s water right to trust and allow for future
water use from the Chewuch River, near Win-
throp, to the mouth of the Columbia River,
more than 500 miles downstream.
The Lundgren Limited Family Partner-
ship’s claim dates back to 1907, according to
the legal notice.
A 1910 agreement with the Chewuch
Canal Co. allows the Lundgren partnership
to transport water using the company’s canal,
which snakes across the landscape for more
than 13 miles and delivers water to about 185
shareholders with farms, ranches and homes
in the Winthrop area.
The draft application sought to place in
trust the right to as much as 97 percent of the
canal’s flow at any one point in time.
After the local paper, the Methow Val-
ley News, published stories about the poten-
tial deal, “it was the talk of the town, at least
in my circles,” said canal shareholder Betsy
Smith, of Winthrop.
Those circles have changed for Smith,
who is a veterinarian and the matriarch of a
sheep-ranching family.
The construction of Highway 20 in the late
1970s, which spills past granite spires in the
North Cascade mountain range, now connects
the valley with Washington’s urbanized west
side. A migration of money and burst of sec-
ond-home construction amid the Methow’s
dry Ponderosa pines followed, changing the
complexion of the bucolic valley.
The Methow has become a hub for climb-
ers and skiers. In summer, tourists swarm the
streets of Winthrop, carrying ice cream cones
between the saloons and general stores fash-
ioned as an homage to the American West.
“The economy now isn’t necessarily
based on agriculture,” said Casey Smith,
27, son and scion of BCS Livestock, the
sheep-ranching operation. “It’s based on rec-
reation and tourism. But it’s beautiful here
because it’s a green landscape.”
Still, many livelihoods depend on
irrigation.
An early May visit found those who work
the land in the throes of “frantic springtime,”
as Roger Rowatt, the president of the canal
company, called the beginning of the irriga-
tion season.
Days before, Rowatt, a miller, farmer and
cabinetmaker who sports a white ponytail
and an arrowhead goatee that points to his
chin, kicked off the frenzy when he opened
a sluice gate on the Chewuch River, allow-
ing water to flow into the canal and down to
shareholders.
“It’s a dry year,” said Brian Larson, a local
orchard manager scrambling to fix a water
pump before new trees arrived for planting.
Dust settles in the Methow
“Water is everything.”
A few miles away, the Smiths were coax-
Perhaps it’s the Methow’s beauty that has
ing sheep into a neighbor’s pasture.
protective valley residents spoiling for civic
“We graze on all irrigated pasture. Without showdown.
that, we wouldn’t have food for the sheep,”
“There’s a history in the Methow of orga-
nizing,” said Rob Crandall, a canal share-
Casey Smith said.
To him, water is a community resource. It holder who operates a nursery for native
galls him that someone would try to remove plants. “You’re not going to steamroll us.”
the “lifeblood” from the place he loves.
“That’s their happy place,” Peterson said
“We don’t know what’s going to hap- with an eye roll.
pen in five to 10 years. Having water will be
The community has doomed many a
increasingly valuable as the climate here gets development project with serious financial
warmer, drier and hotter,” he said. “One of backing, perhaps because the projects had
the things that surprises me is that anybody serious financial backing.
that would be from this community, and
In the 1970s, valley residents fought
embraces their com-
plans for a ski resort.
munity, would try to
Over decades, oppo-
‘THE ISSuE IS
nents wore down the
sell their water rights
Aspen Ski Co., ran a
to someone far away.”
NOT OvER. CROWN
Like others, Rowatt
Bellevue group out of
fears water sold away
$12 million and town,
COLumbIA ANd
will be removed from
too, and then boxed
PEOPLE LIKE THEm
the Methow forever
out a developer who
because it’s more valu-
had pivoted the ski
ARE TRyING TO buy
able for agriculture in
project to a 560-home
prime growing areas
resort and golf course.
uP EvERy dROP OF
that can produce a
The project was
WATER THEy CAN
higher yield for each
ultimately
doomed
acre.
over
water
rights.
ANd mOvE IT OuT
“To sell out water
Once
again,
and dry out an agricul-
Methow residents ral-
OF THE vALLEy.’
lied. Dozens turned
tural community to line
Roger Rowatt | president
out to local meetings
the pockets of invest-
of Chewuch Canal Co.
ment bankers, yeah,
about the Lundgren
that bothers me,” he
transfer. The canal
said.
company hired a Har-
Water, a public resource, shouldn’t neces- vard-educated Winthrop lawyer, Natalie
sarily go to the highest bidder, Rowatt said.
Kuehler, to object for her “fiercely protec-
Peterson
says
the
community tive” community.
misunderstood.
Kuehler found the Lundgrens’ origi-
The application reflected the Lundgrens’ nal claim was not filed with Ecology until
historic water claim, not the amount of flow 1998. She wrote to the department, arguing
Crown hoped to utilize, he said. Leaving the claim was junior to the canal and the riv-
water in the stream would help Chewuch er’s instream flow rule, which is essentially
River fish, he said. Water deposited with a water right for the river itself.
Ecology agreed, making the water claim
Crown could be leased or purchased by val-
ley residents, too.
much more likely to be restricted.
“If they wanted to preserve a community
“The monetary value took a deep dive,”
asset, this is the way to do it,” he said.
Kuehler said.
He balked at concerns over Crown’s pri-
This August, more than 14 months after
vate-equity backing.
Crown applied to put the Lundgren water
“To say that somebody coming from New right into trust, Crown pulled out.
York with money must inherently be a bad
“The Chewuch Canal Company did win
thing ignores the realities of everyday life this battle,” Rowatt said. “The issue is not
anywhere in America,” he said.
over. Crown Columbia and people like them
Earlier this year, Don Lundgren, who are trying to buy up every drop of water they
was attempting to sell the water right, told a can and move it out of the valley.”
reporter he did not understand the interest in
McCrea is now pursuing statewide legis-
his water deal and declined to make further lation to restrict the ability to transfer water
out of local watersheds, which could fore-
comment.
close Peterson’s dreams of a water market
‘Aggressive acquisition’
spanning much of the state.
As Crown pursued water, the Ecology
As the climate warms, few forecast water
Department grappled with its acquisitions.
decreasing in price. But more than money is
The department’s Office of the Columbia on the line when bets are made on its future.
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