DOE releases water permits for Quincy subarea

QUINCY — Fifteen Grant County irrigators and one dairy recently received new water permits from the state Department of Ecology (DOE).

The permits allow for irrigation of 1,459.5 acres using 5,208 acres feet of water in the Quincy Ground Water Subarea, according to DOE Communications Manager Dan Partridge.

The permits range in use from 2-acre lawns to 1,000-acre agricultural fields, and are spread out through land in Ephrata, George, Moses Lake, Quincy and Warden.

From the 15 permits provided, Central Terminals is receiving the largest amount of water with 3,500 acres feet to irrigate 1,000 acres. Jet Farms, owned by Jeff and Terry Cochran, received two permits for 980 acre feet to irrigate 280 acres of land, and Garro Farms received a permit for 420 acre feet of water to irrigate 120 acres.

In March, the DOE announced a total of 90 permits would be issued this year.

“This is good news for a lot of people. The permits will allow additional agricultural production in the Columbia Basin, and the regional economy will benefit,” stated Keith Stoffel of the DOE’s Water Resources Program in DOE’s Eastern Region Office.

Later this year, 75 more permits will be released until a limit of 177,000 acre-feet of water is reached, according to the state agency.

There is roughly 30,000 square acre feet of water remaining for new permits in the subarea. Partridge stated the current waiting list exceeds the amount available.

Future allocation of permits will be restricted to quantities of water becoming available by cancellation or reduction of existing permits.

The remaining water could provide $12.7 million in development of dry land to irrigated agricultural land, $3.1 million annually in increased agricultural production and about $60 million in increased land value due to commercial development, according to Partridge.

For more information, visit www.ecy.wa.gov/biblio/0911013.html.