Odessa 'time out' legislation highlights water meeting
Ecology, legislators speak to senate bill
MOSES LAKE — Ground water levels in the Odessa Sub-Area Aquifer continue to dip, but one bill pre-filed by a group of seven state senators has hopes to bring a short-term solution to the aquifer's depletion.
Sens. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, and Joyce Mulliken, R-Moses Lake, are among the bi-partisan authors listed on Senate Bill 6151 who want to put a "time out" on water right provisions that could currently lead to the relinquishment of those rights by the state.
"What we've found is one piece of it to work on that we think we can get to this year," Schoesler said.
A farmer can currently partially or wholly lose a water right according to Washington law if that right is not beneficially used for successive five-year period. Schoesler said from the date the bill goes into effect, irrigators in the Odessa Sub-Area Aquifer would not be punished for not using their full water right.
And if a person is in that area, he said they will be able to take a "time out" from relinquishment from the day the bill is signed.
"I think we took the most critical area for conservation," Schoesler said, "and we're giving the most critical area a chance."
The senators hosted a meeting with Department of Ecology representatives and a packed house of area farmers at the Moses Lake Fire Department Tuesday. The senate bill highlighted a number of water topics at the meeting, where officials also discussed 2006 water rights changes and other issues affecting Columbia Basin irrigation.
DOE hydrogeologist Keith Stoffel sees the relinquishment "time out" as a means to stop the rate of decline in the area, and said the bill would give the state some time while they perform a complete study.
"The agency thinks that it's a good thing in the interim when we're trying to figure out what to do with the Odessa," Stoffel said.
The bill is designed to offer relief to farmers who make efficient use of their water, and Stoffel told the farmers that all it would do is slow down the pace of decline of the aquifer table.
The bill impacts the aquifer area where state officials began allowing farmers to draw water from in the 1970s, with the belief they would ultimately get water from the planned expansion of the project. Congress originally authorized the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project to cover 1,095,000 acres, but to date, only about 600,000 acres have been developed.
Schoesler and Mulliken said the "time out" bill has received good bipartisan support, and they are looking toward a possible hearing in the first or second week of the session. If all goes the way they hope, Schoesler said the bill could be signed and in effect by the early part of the irrigation season in March.
Some in the audience had concerns about the bill, asking if it could be applied retroactively. But that application could pose problems with trying to stop aquifer depletion, the senators said, and could be a stumbling block to getting the bill through the legislature.
"I think one of the issues that we're trying to resolve is to reduce the depletion," Mulliken said. "I don't think that going back and making it retroactive is going to solve the problem, and may cause more problems."
Mulliken said the "time out" bill made perfect sense for a critical situation, and said the bill would help Odessa farmers without harming their counterparts in Mulliken's district that covers adjacent Grant County.
"This is probably the only solution we can get through in the short term," Mulliken said. "The importance of this piece of legislation is that there's no one who loses."