Senate hears testimony on possible Hirst fix
Emry Dinman/Columbia Basin Herald William Palmer, with the Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners, testifies before the Washington Legislature on SB 6091.
OLYMPIA — Washington lawmakers held a hearing Monday to discuss SB 6091, a possible fix for the state Supreme Court’s Hirst decision.
The bill, which seeks to balance the approval of water right permits with the sustainability of local water basins, was sponsored by Sen. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim.
Landowners from several counties testified that their properties have depreciated in value due to the restriction of water rights permits. They also questioned whether SB 6091 adequately addressed the problems created by the Hirst decision.
Edwina Johnston, a member of the Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights, testified that her Issaquah property had been rendered worthless by the Hirst decision. Johnston had invested in the property as part of her retirement savings.
“Hirst has destroyed my plans for retirement,” Johnston said.
Kathleen Sabel, who owns property in Bellingham, testified that SB 6091 did not bring clarity to landowners worried about property value. Sabel said the bill would simply “kick the can down the road.”
“This just causes more complexity,” Sabel said. “This just muddies the waters more.”
Several hydrologists and hydro-geologists testified during the hearing, calling into question the basic premise behind SB 6091 and other Hirst fixes, that well water use must be restricted in order to mitigate ground water depletion.
Glen Smith is with the Washington State Ground Water Association, a trade association for industries connected to ground water use. Smith and other industry specialists argued that wells have a minimally negative effect on surface water, pointing to the propensity for ground water recharge rates to increase when water is drawn from deeper wells.
Smith questioned whether lawmakers were reaching out to industry professionals and scientists to inform bills such as SB 6091.
SB 6091 is only a temporary fix, Van De Wege said, and could be modified as necessary in 2023. Van De Wege asked Smith whether Smith would consider such a stopgap solution to be acceptable.
“That’s a slippery, slippery slope,” Smith said.
No one who attended registered as being in support of SB 6091.
The Senate Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources & Parks Committee will hold an executive session on SB 6091 on Thursday.