District officials say state after members' water rights

By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press

TWISP, Wash. -- The Washington Department of Ecology has assessed a $17,000 penalty against the Methow Valley Irrigation District in Okanogan County for allegedly diverting too much water from the Twisp River.

The district denied exceeding limits, said it will appeal the penalty and described it as harassment by Ecology to try with the Okanogan Wilderness League to end the district's water rights that date back more than 100 years.

Ecology has been trying to help the district comply with orders for more than 20 years to conserve river water as critical habitat for endangered fish, says Joye Redfield-Wilder, Ecology spokeswoman in Yakima. While negotiations between the district and Ecology broke down in 2009, Ecology is allowing the district to withdraw 17 cubic feet per second of water from the river, which exceeds a court limit of 11 cfs, Redfield-Wilder said.

The wilderness league is suing the district and Ecology for violating the court ordered 11 cfs, but Ecology had discretionary authority to allow a larger withdrawal, Redfield-Wilder said.

The district has exceeded 17 cfs for 17 of 26 days so far this season and has not adopted best management practices, such as staggering and scheduling district members' water use, upon which the 17 cfs is contingent, she said.

Vaughn Jolley, district board member, said it's disingenuous for Ecology to say the district hasn't adopted best management practices. Staggered and scheduled water use is not practical because of parcel size, absentee owners and length of the canal, he said. The district is working with the Methow Salmon Recovery Foundation and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to address best management practices, he said.

Greg Nordang, district board president, called the penalty "phony" and said the district has no intention of paying it. The river is running so high that it washes over the tops of the irrigation gates, thereby exceeding the 17 cfs, he said. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife is to increase gate height, he said.

Ecology didn't listen when he told the agency the river was overtopping the gates, Nordang said.

Redfield-Wilder said she didn't know if the gates were overtopped.

Jolley said the district can't control the overtopping. He said it's caused high cfs but that 17.85 cfs is within the Bureau of Reclamation's 5 percent margin of error and is not a violation. Such a margin of error is the district's contention, Redfield-Wilder said.

Jolley said negotiations broke down with Ecology in 2009 because the department wanted the district to accept its numbers on irrigated acres, which would result in the district relinquishing water rights for members.

He said the district has no legal authority to do that. There is a statutory process, which Ecology is not following, to end water rights, he said.

"Over all these years, Ecology is trying to adjudicate and relinquish lawful water rights based on a tentative determination of extent and validity for sufficient water to grant changes and points of diversion," Jolley said.

Ecology basically is trying to shut the district down, he said.

A closed meeting between the district and the wilderness league on June 14 to discuss possible resolution of OWL's lawsuit was cordial, Jolley said.

The district serves more than 300 members, Nordang said, with 150 to 200 mostly residential customers on the Western Canal, the portion in dispute. Some orchards, pastures and hay fields are served by it, he said.