Olympic Peninsula water users to meet legislators about proposed flow rule

The Captial Press had a follow-up article about the WRIA 17 issues in their November 4, 2005 issue. Word about what is happening here is getting out to a widening audience, and that's helping us a great deal. The full text PDF page where the article appears is by subscription only, so we've made it available for you through this page.

We'd like to thank the many people who have written their state legilsators with their concerns. Without your help, we would not be having this public meeting with them on November 10. Please come join us for the conversation!

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Olympic Peninsula water users to meet legislators about proposed flow rule

By COOKSON BEECHER
Washington State Staff Writer

Small-scale farmers and other water users in the Quilcene-Snow watershed on the north Olympic Peninsula will have a chance to share their concerns about the state’s proposed instream-flow rule for the watershed with their state legislators during a special forum on Nov. 10.

The forum will be from 5 to 7:30 p.m. in the Fort Worden Commons, 200 Battery Way, near Port Townsend. It will follow an all-day Jefferson County Economic Development Council summit.

The Ecology Department crafted the proposed rule with the goal of providing enough water for fish and people. But many small-scale farmers, well drillers and other water interests in the county are so dismayed by the rule that they contacted their state legislators about it.

Of particular concern to the smallscale farmers is the department’s assertions that state law does not allow them to use water from their exempt wells for any crops that are sold commercially — no matter how small the acreage or amount of water used.

Department officials say the farmers will have to apply for water-right permits if their wells don’t already having existing water rights. But department officials also say that there is not enough water in many of the waterways in the basin to grant new water rights.

Small-scale farmers in the watershed say the issue of water use from exempt wells has statewide ramifications and needs to be fixed. Ecology officials say they are only following state law and that it will be up to the state legislators to come up with a solution.

Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, said she has received many e-mails and letters from constituents who are “clearly very upset about the rule-making process.”

After talking with some of the constituents, she has come to the conclusion that the process didn’t include all of the affected parties, among them the smallscale farmers in the watershed.

“This is a very contentious issue,” she said. “I think it will be good for all of us to be in the same room together and hear what’s being said.”

Taking a long-term view of the situation, Kessler said that national food security figures into the equation.

“Are we going to stop people from growing food for their own communities,” she said. “I believe that we need to have local agriculture so we can supply our own needs. We don’t want to be depending on other countries for our food.”

Her fellow lawmakers from the 24th District, Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, and Rep. Jim Buck, R-Joyce, have said they will attend the meeting too.

For more information about the Ecology Department’s proposed instream rule for the Quilcene-Snow watershed, go to www.ecy.wa.gov/ programs/wr/instreamflows/
quilsnowbasin.html.

To tap into an online forum conducted by Norman MacLeod, an Internet consultant who lives near Port Townsend, go to wria17.blogspot.com.

Additional information about is available at www.olywater.org.

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