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From: [email-masked]
[mailto:[email-masked]]

Sent: Tuesday,
December 13, 2005 8:21 AM

To: [email-masked]

Subject: uswaternews: WA attorney general backs ranchers on water
use for

livestock

Washington  <http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcrights/5washatto12.html>

attorney general backs
ranchers on water use for livestock

http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcrights/5washatto12.html

Washington attorney
general backs ranchers on water use for livestock

December 2005

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.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

NOTE: In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted

material  herein is distributed without profit or payment to
those who have

expressed
a  prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit

research and
educational purposes only. For more information go to:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

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