_____

From: WRIA 17 [mailto:[email-masked]]

Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005 12:45 PM

To: [email-masked]

Subject: [WRIA 17] Water interest is lauded

Things are moving right along, aren't they? This morning's article in the

Peninsula  <http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/>
Daily News (not included in

their online edition) provides additional context to the issues surrounding

the Department of Ecology's draft instream flow rule.

The article contains some information on the published opinion in the case

of Kim v. Pollution Control Hearing Board, et.
AL.

_____

Water interest is lauded

by Jeff Chew

Peninsula Daily News

PORT TOWNSEND - State Rep. Jim Buck says he's glad Jefferson County

residents are jumping into controversial watershed planning issues that

could affect how they use water at home or commercially.

"I'm pleased that the public has gotten as active on the issue as they

have," the Joyce Republican said Thursday.

Buck's 24th District includes Jefferson and Clallam counties and most of

Grays Harbor County.

Buck said the Legislature has tried to make the state Department of Ecology

more responsive to the public's concerns during the past 11 years, most of

his tenure in the House.

At issue is the instream flow rule, which Ecology has
proposed in an effort

to provide enough water for threatened salmon stocks and human consumption.

As currently proposed, water consumption in most of Jefferson County could

be reduced from 5,000 gallons per day per household to 350 gallons per day.

"Five thousand gallons a day means you are leaving your kitchen sink
faucet

running for a minimum of eight hours," Buck said, arguing that most

residents don't use that much water.

East Jefferson County residents and political leaders have expressed

skepticism over the rule proposal, saying that it smacks of an attempt by

Ecology to meter water wells in the county.

Buck said he agrees, but Ecology officials deny that is the intention.

"They've been trying to meter wells for a long time," Buck said.

"Some people in the county have been trying to get them under
control."

Buck said longtime Chimacum Valley dairy farmer Rover
Short is one of those

concerned water users, along with well drillers countywide.

Buck said he looks forward to a forum at 5 p.m. Thursday at Fort Worden

Commons, 200 Battery Way, Port Townsend.

Buck, Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, and Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, are

scheduled to meet with Ecology representatives.

The forum is open to the public.

"I welcome the public interest and public involvement because it's the
only

way to protect their water rights by having that kind of political
backing,"

Buck said.

Citing the Kim Appeals Court decision, Buck said the Legislature has to act

to make a change in such a rule, not Ecology.

"And we have not," Buck said.

"And that has been a hot political potato for the whole time I have been
in

Olympia."

"Now they're trying to do it through a rule and not through legislative

action."

Precedent setting case

Joo Il and Keum Ja Kim won the precendent-setting case after a six-year

battle against the Pollution Control Hearing Board and the Department of

Ecology.

The Kims filed suit in 1998 against the state
agencies after officials said

they had to have a water right permit to use well water for their commercial

nursery on less than a half-acre in Poulsbo.

Ecology ordered the Kims not to use the well drilled
in 1965 for anything

other than their residence.

The Court of Appeals rejected Ecology's assertion, ruling that the Kim's

commercial nursery was using water for an "industrial purpose," which

exempts them from needing a permit.

The court ruled that a 1945 law should be applied and that rendering the

statute obsolete was up to the Legislature, not Ecology.

Although the Kims lost in the lower courts, the state
Court of Appeals

reversed the previous decisions, which gave the case precedent-setting

value, akin to a state Supreme Court ruling because it has gone unchallenged

and the 1945 law has not been amended by the state Legislature.

The Kims were represented by Jim Tracy, who is now
legal counsel to Fred

Hill Materials Inc., which is expanding its gravel-mining operations in

Shine.

Science questionable

Buck is critical of Ecology's instream flow rule
proposal as it now stands.

"I am not willing to accept their science on water continuity," he
said.

Continuity is Ecology's belief that use of groundwater results in reduced

surface water.

"Five thousand [gallons] is falling on the ground and partially recharging

the aquifer," Buck said.

"Whether it is re-entering through a septic system or through te watering of

a lawn, it is being reintroduced."

Ecology policymakers, who want more study on how to protect stream flows,

arrived at the proposed rule allowing access to 3.87 million gallons of

water a day in Water Resources Inventory Area 17, which includes the

Quilcene-Snow basins in Jefferson County.

The limitation sets an average single household usage benchmark of 350

gallons daily, based on the assumption that the average person uses 70

gallons of water daily, Ecology officials said.

Under the proposed instream flow rule, water can be
used exempt of a state

water rights permit so long as what is grown is not sold commercially.

_____

--

Posted by WRIA 17 to WRIA

<http://wria17.blogspot.com/2005/11/water-interest-is-lauded.html>
17 at

11/04/2005 11:58:00 AM

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