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Department of Ecology News Release - August 1, 2000
00-155
SPOKANE - The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) has fined the Stahl Hutterian Brethren and a man who leases land to the Brethren a total of $40,200 for illegally using water in what's called the "Odessa sub-area"-a region in Central Washington with severe water availability problems.
Ecology fined the Stahl Hutterian Brethren $27,000, while fining Gordon Gering of Ritzville $13,200. Gering owns approximately 65 acres of the 175 acres the Hutterians were irrigating without a water right this spring and summer.
The property is located 21 miles east of Moses Lake adjacent to I-90.
In May, the farm was ordered by Ecology to stop irrigating the land and to install a water-measuring device (flow meter) and report to Ecology the volume of water being used.
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 a flow meter was not installed.
The Stahl Hutterian farm is located in Adams County 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.
"At the current rate of ground water decline in some parts of the Odessa sub-area, it's possible that the next generation of farmers will simply find it too costly to drill deeper and deeper wells for irrigation," said George Schlender of Ecology's Spokane office. "Because of these declines and because we've received a lot of complaints about unauthorized irrigation, Ecology has stepped up compliance efforts in the area."
Field investigators verified, during a review of a water-right change application submitted by the Hutterians, that the additional acreage, planted in potatoes, was already being irrigated without authorization.
"Unauthorized expansion of irrigated acreage is a big problem out in the Odessa sub-area," Schlender explained. "It's not uncommon for people to request a seasonal change in their water rights to move their water from one place to another to accommodate another crop. But it's not okay to go ahead and do it without authorization."
Gering and 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; pager, 509-622-1289
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
