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Methow Valley News June 20, 2001 Endangered Species Creative and sensible approaches - Publisher's Comment by Lee Hicks by Lee Hicks As expected, Okanogan County and several Methow basin irrigators have filed suit in federal district court claiming federal endangered species decisions have illegally taken local water rights. In announcing the filing early Tuesday (June 19) the county argued that Endangered Species Act decisions established standards for streamflows that are below levels of more than 100 years ago before irrigation began in the basin. The suit names as defendants National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service. In 1999, NMFS and USFWS set target flows in biological opinions for basin streams that required the Forest Service to implement irrigation restrictions on federal land. Joining the county as plaintiffs are irrigators Steve Devin and Ron VanderYacht. In effect the "Section 7 ESA consultations" of the federal agencies limited water rights, many dating back to the early 1900s. "The Methow Valley is being singled out to test a flawed policy that clearly violates federal law," according to commissioner Craig Vejraska in a prepared statement. Vejraska cited a 1997 Congressional Task Force report that questions Forest Service authority to limit water rights as a condition for renewing special use permits to divert from federal land. "Last month, the Forest Service informed Congress that it would abandon the policy," said Vejraska, "but we’re already stuck with it in the Methow. We have no choice but to take legal action to right this wrong." The commissioners’ statement also pointed to an April federal claims court decision in favor of irrigators in California’s Tulare Lake Basin. The court ruled that Bureau of Reclamation actions that withheld water to aid ESA-listed fish were in effect a "physical taking" of a contractual right. "Either the federal agencies back off from their illegal actions or they have to compensate our irrigators in the Methow," Vejraska said. Publisher's Comment by Lee Hicks Creative and sensible approaches In various public discussions of water and fish of the past few years, the subject of using stored water has been raised as a potential solution for improving streamflows. This drought year has again illustrated there are times when natural flows just aren’t enough. This has been the case through much of the Methow basin’s recorded history. It’s particularly true in the upper reaches of the Methow. With already minimal agricultural or domestic water use in the area above Mazama, it is unlikely any further conservation would contribute significantly to improving flows. A number of reasonable people have suggested that building storage and using aquifer water would be practical ways to assure adequate streamflows for fish in low-flow years. Now, on the "wet" side of the Cascades, a similar idea has gained support in the Snoqualmie Valley. The concept there is to pump water from a massive 14,000 year-old aquifer created by glacial action into the Snoqualmie River when needed for fish. Water would also be available for growth in the area and river flows could be boosted by 10 percent at sensitive times. The hydrogeological specialists developing the Snoqualmie proposal are also working on contract with the Methow Basin Watershed Planning Unit to study our aquifers. In California, Vidler Water Co. has created a market for stored water—buying rights, pumping water into underground reservoirs and aquifers and re-selling as needed to municipalities and growers in that often-parched state. It was reported that environmentalists are "skeptical" of the Snoqualmie Valley proposal. They had rather see more emphasis on water conservation. Certainly conservation is an admirable goal. But in areas such as the upper Methow reaches, it would likely be impossible to achieve the kind of savings needed in drought years to enhance instream flows. Creative and sensible new approaches should be explored to provide water for fish and people when nature simply does not cooperate. Opinion | Sports |
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