  |
|
|
Department of Ecology News Release - March 3, 2009
09-050
YAKIMA – The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) is asking Kittitas County officials to negotiate their differences over a proposed groundwater management rule for the western portion of the county.
County officials spoke against adoption of the rule at public hearings in February. Ecology Director Jay Manning has written the Kittitas County Commissioners to express his “surprise and disappointment” that the county may be backing away from a memorandum of agreement (MOA) it entered into with Ecology last year to address concerns about the proliferation of permit-exempt water wells.
Ecology is invoking the dispute resolution process of the MOA, which allows 60 days for Kittitas County and Ecology to resolve their differences over proposed restrictions on the use of permit-exempt water wells in housing developments in the western portion of the county.
In his letter to the commissioners today, Manning wrote that “Ecology negotiated in good faith with Kittitas County to find an alternative approach to a moratorium being imposed on the use of new exempt wells until sufficient information is known about potential effects from such wells on senior water rights and stream flows.”
Manning’s letter also said, “Over the past year and a half, Ecology has worked hard with your staff and the Board of County Commissioners to draft a rule that reflects our mutually acceptable approach identified in the MOA.”
Currently, the second of two emergency rules is restricting the use of exempt wells for residential developments in western Kittitas County. Ecology will seek to adopt a third emergency rule to provide more time to resolve the differences over the rule.
If negotiations fail with Kittitas County, Ecology will be forced to consider other approaches to protect senior water right holders and stream flows, including closure of the upper Kittitas basin to new, unmitigated water uses.
Ecology and the county are contracting for a groundwater study in the upper basin. Regardless of whether Ecology is successful with county negotiations or must impose water withdrawals, the agency will continue its commitment to seek funding for the completion of a groundwater study.
##
Media Contact: Joye Redfield-Wilder, 509-575-2610
For more information: www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/cro/kittitas_wp.html
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
