U.S. Water News Online
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The state Department of Ecology may not limit the amount of water that ranchers draw daily for their livestock, according to an opinion by the state attorney general's office.
Stock water has been a nearly perennial issue in the Legislature between environmentalists who want limits and ranchers and dairies who do not.
"The greatest benefit of the opinion may be that those producers can take it to their bank for financing purposes. It should remove the question of water availability," said state Rep. Janea Holmquist, R-Moses Lake. She sought the opinion after constituents complained of being rejected for loans because of Ecology Department-imposed limits.
"This is a victory, not only for dairy and livestock owners, but for those who want to keep state agency rule-making in check," said state Sen. Bob Morton, R-Orient, who also asked for the opinion. "It's the job of the Legislature to set policy, not state agencies."
An environmental lawyer in Spokane agreed that legislative action may be the best way to fight the attorney general's ruling, since legal action seems unlikely.
"There was a collective environmental groan when it came out," said Rachael Paschal Osborn, a public interest water lawyer and adjunct professor at Gonzaga University, where she teaches water law.
Under laws dating back 60 years, four kinds of groundwater withdrawals are exempt from a permit requirement -- livestock watering, small industrial uses, homes or small groups of homes and noncommercial watering of a lawn or garden a half-acre or less in size.
The state agency interpreted that law by limiting livestock watering to 5,000 gallons per day, but recently, Attorney General Rob McKenna's office issued an opinion that the agency lacked authority to set a specific limit.
"We respect the attorney general's opinion and will abide by it," said Curt Hart, the agency's water resources spokesman.
Osborn said the law was originally intended to help small family farms meet their household and livestock needs, but the attorney general's interpretation opens up the state's water resources to unlimited use by large dairies and commercial farms.
"The concern is the use of water outside the permit system is very difficult to control," Osborn said, adding, "We don't have a very strong enforcement arm in the water rights arena in this state."
The ruling also removed per-gallon limits on lawn and garden watering, but acreage limits remain in effect, as does a 5,000-gallon-a-day limit for home and small industrial use, Hart said.
Small industrial use could include some agricultural irrigators, although most farmers have their own water rights or receive water through an irrigation district.
The opinion validated the Ecology Department's authority to bar future groundwater withdrawals in basins where water is found to be unavailable, Hart said.
Osborn said environmentalists are not alone in their concerns because other water rights holders will now have to compete with large commercial farms.
The ruling also does not prevent a senior water right holder or other third party from filing a lawsuit if that party believes his or her water right is being impaired by livestock watering.
Livestock watering has long been an especially contentious issue. Obtaining a water right can be a lengthy, expensive process, and livestock require a great deal of water -- 18 gallons for a dairy cow to make 9 gallons of milk a day, for example.
A 5,000-gallon-a-day limit would support 277 cows, while the average dairy in the Yakima Valley has 777 cows.
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