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Department of Ecology News Release - June 28, 2000
00-117
SPOKANE - The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) has fined the Marlin Hutterian Brethren $34,300 for irrigating 125 acres of land for which the group has no water right and for failing to install a required water-measuring device.
The illegal irrigation took place for 200 days during the 1999 irrigation season and 77 days this spring.
On May 4, Ecology issued a cease-and-desist order, requiring that the group stop irrigating the unauthorized land. In addition, the Hutterians were required to install a water-measuring device (flow meter) within 30 days so they could report their volume of water use to Ecology.
Peter Gross, representing the Hutterians, filed an appeal of the cease-and-desist order to the state's Pollution Control Hearings Board. However, according to field investigators, the irrigation continued, in violation of the order, and the flow meter was installed but was not in working condition.
The Marlin Hutterian farm is located within the "Odessa sub-area," one of only three specially designated sub-areas in the state. The ground water in the Odessa sub-area is managed more closely because of documented declines in the water tables. The other two sub-areas in Washington are the Quincy sub-area and the smaller Duck Lake sub-area in Okanogan County.
"We've seen the water table in the Odessa sub-area steadily decline in the last 20 years, even though we are not issuing new water rights there," said George Schlender of Ecology's Spokane office. "If water is used without authorization, it means the legally operating water users are the ones to suffer. We must protect the rights of senior water-right holders and attempt to maintain the aquifer at a safe, sustaining level."
The ground water in the Odessa sub-area is managed under a regulation that has been in place since the early 1970s to ensure the water table does not fall more than 300 feet below the level it was at in the spring of 1967. The regulation provides for more oversight in the area to protect senior water rights from unauthorized groundwater withdrawals.
The Hutterians may file an "application for relief" from the penalty with Ecology within 15 days, or may file an appeal within 30 days with the state's Pollution Control Hearings Board.
Contact: Jani Gilbert, Public Information Manager, (509) 456-4464
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
