Kittitas County water worries spill over at hearing

CLE ELUM -- A packed crowd crammed a Kittitas County district courtroom Thursday night, pleading with state officials to let them draw more groundwater for their homes and businesses.

"We don't want to lose our land. If we can't sell it and it's not worth what we paid for it, what option do we have?" Lisa Graham asked Kittitas County commissioners and state Department of Ecology Director Jay Manning.

Graham said she and her husband have had to lay off employees at their plumbing and heating business because there's no work, and no one wants to buy their property if there's no water.

County commissioners wanted to hear from the public before signing an agreement with the Department of Ecology that would limit the drilling of individual wells in the upper county area in coming years.

Thursday night, the comments -- and frustration -- centered on the state's July 16 moratorium on new exempt wells, effectively bringing Kittitas County development to a standstill.

At issue are the multitude of new homes being built in the Cascade hills between Ellensburg and Snoqualmie Pass and the wells that supply them.

Senior water-right holders, such as the city of Roslyn and irrigators from the Roza District, are worried that new residents are effectively stealing their water.

And state officials have said they have a legal responsibility to step in to make sure water is being fairly allocated -- and protected -- for senior water-rights holders and stream flows.

All the available water in the Kittitas Valley was essentially spoken for in 1905, when the Bureau of Reclamation took the water for the Roza and Kittitas districts, which now provide the fuel for orchards and crops.

The city of Roslyn was near the end of the line when it bought a junior water right in 1908.

Jeri Porter, mayor of Roslyn, said the city asked the state to look into the water situation because people are tapping into water around Roslyn even as the community has had to limit its water use in three of the last 10 years because of drought.

"People are drilling wells. What would they say if their water was being taken?" Porter asked.

Under state rules that date back to 1945, wells that supply up to 5,000 gallons a day are not regulated or permitted. They're used for single-family homes, industrial businesses and to supply properties with a half-acre lawn or garden.

A fourth exemption -- for watering livestock -- has allowed dairies and feedlots to draw an unlimited amount of water daily.

Since 1993, no new water rights have been issued in Kittitas County, but during the last 11 years about 3,000 wells have been drilled, all falling under the "exempt" rule category.

After two years of negotiations on a new water management plan, the state imposed the emergency ban, in hopes of getting Kittitas County commissioners to move forward.

Following more than two hours of testimony Thursday, the commissioners agreed to continue the hearing for one week to accept additional comment. The hearing will resume at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Among those in the front row listening were county commissioners from six other Eastern Washington counties: Yakima, Benton, Grant, Chelan, Lincoln and Okanogan.

Asked by their counterparts in Ellensburg to attend, several of the commissioners said they fear a move to limit wells that serve homes, gardens, livestock and industrial uses is headed next to their counties.

The ban represents the first time the state Department of Ecology has acted to halt use of these types of wells, considered exempt from a state permit.

"It's coming our way. We know it is," said Max Benitz, Benton County commission chairman. "It's scary where we are at."

Dale Loveland, representing Cashmere Valley Bank in Ellensburg, told the nearly 100 people crammed into the courtroom the bank won't lend money to buy land whether a well exists or not because of uncertainty over access to water.

"If it can happen here, you can do it anywhere in the state. I urge a resolution," he said. "I have friends who are being severely hurt."

State Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, urged county commissioners not to sign the agreement because of a pending attorney general's opinion that could call into question the legality of the agreement.

"I will do all I can in the Legislature so we aren't dealing with this in most of Eastern Washington," she said.

Tom Tebb, director of Ecology's Central Region office in Yakima, denied the agency intends to extend bans to other counties.

"That is not our intent. Our intent is to look at good, sound water management," he said during a break in the hearing.

But the department's stance, expressed by Manning several times during the hearing, didn't satisfy many of the people who testified about the impact the ban has had on their lives and the lives of their neighbors.

Most urged commissioners to reject the agreement, which outlines how water will be managed in the future in the upper county. The upper county is the subject of the ban because a groundwater study in the lower county already is being conducted and less is known about groundwater in the upper county,

"Developers can't sell their land. The economy has been put to a stop," Mike Stephensen of Cle Elum told Manning. "This has put the whole county in the toilet. I don't think Kittitas County should deal with you."

Manning said the department has available to it a block of water that can be used to offset new uses, one element of the proposed agreement. The offsetting use, called mitigation, is proposed to be required for those seeking wells along rivers and creeks. Those in higher elevations would have their availability of water cut back to less than the 5,000 gallons per day now allowed for exempt wells under state law.

Manning said the state will do a study to better understand the relationship between surface water and groundwater.

He said the law requires him to act.

"I don't want to be the one being asked, 'Why didn't you take care of this problem?' "

County commissioners are unhappy that the agreement, should they adopt it and the state Department of Ecology sign off as well, will not cause an end to the moratorium.

Manning has said he will wait for an attorney general's opinion on questions both the county and the department have posed.

The opinion is not expected until September.

The county wants to know whether Ecology has the authority to limit exempt uses to fewer than 5,000 gallons per day.

Commissioner Paul Jewell said last week he is upset the agency won't lift the ban should the county sign the agreement.