BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Local tribes are joining forces to address water rights in the Nooksack River basin.
The Nooksack Indian Tribe and Lummi Nation yesterday announced a joint campaign advocating for adjudication, a formal court judgment on how much water is being used, how much is available, and the legal right to the water.
They are calling their education campaign “Salmon Need Water” and say adjudication would end decades of uncertainty over water rights in the Nooksack basin.
Local ag leaders have come out against the process, saying it would do more harm than good, forcing farmers to spend potentially hundreds of millions of dollars on legal fees to protect their access to water.
The Department of Ecology says the goal of the adjudication process, which they estimate could take 10-12 years, is to bring all water users in a specific area into one conversation.