KGMI News
OLYMPIA, Wash. – A bill to address the so-called Hirst decision that effectively limited the water rights of rural property owners in Whatcom County and across the state is advancing through the Washington Senate.
Last Thursday, Senators made changes to the bill that impacted how much water rural well property owners would be allowed to use.
“This bill is probably a step in the right direction, but it definitely doesn’t get us where we need to be,” Ferndale Republican State Senator Doug Ericksen said. “This will take your 5,000 gallons per day from a residential well and lower it 950 gallons.”
Ericksen said the regulatory mechanism on enforcing the 950 gallons a day isn’t specified.
“There’s an increase permit fees included in this, up to $500 for your individual well,” Ericksen said. The bill also allots about $300 million over the course of the next few years to projects that “are not very well defined,” Ericksen said.
Ericksen says a fix for the Hirst decision is needed to ease restrictions on rural property owners in Whatcom County — whether they have a well now or want to drill one.
The next step for the bill is for the rules committee to decide if and when the whole Senate votes on the bill.