Stock-watering bill squeezed out by schedule

By STEVE BROWN
Capital Press

A bill aimed at clarifying the use of wells for watering dairy cattle died when the Washington state Senate failed to act on it before the Feb. 16 deadline.

Senate Bill 6803 is unlikely to be considered again during this legislative session.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Phil Rockefeller, D-Bainbridge Island, originally was designed to address all livestock operations in the state, including registration of groundwater and establishing limits for new livestock operations.

Under current law, all groundwater withdrawals require an application and permit from the Department of Ecology. Exemptions from this permit requirement include stock watering.

SB6803, in its original form, would have changed that exemption to existing operations using less than 5.6 acre-feet of water a year. Those using more would be required to register and begin metering.

Any new withdrawal would be exempt from permitting if the withdrawal for stock watering does not exceed 5.6 acre-feet per year, and annual withdrawal quantities are metered and recorded.

The bill was amended to focus on dairies. It would allow existing dairy farms using less than 13.8 acre-feet per year to remain exempt from permitting requirements. Those using more would remain exempt from permitting requirements if the dairy files a registration, water withdrawal thereafter does not exceed the amount in the registration and the dairy begins metering by Dec. 31, 2012.

Jay Gordon, executive director of the Washington Dairy Federation, said the narrower focus was requested by the dairy industry.

"We were looking for a legislative fix," he said. "The cattlemen and feeders said, 'You work on the dairy fix.'"

Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, said he was troubled by the amendment. "I'm concerned this pre-empts a lawsuit that is going forward. I have probably the largest dairy-producing county in the state, but I'm going to vote no."

Honeyford was referring to a lawsuit filed last summer by several Franklin County dryland farmers and two environmental groups -- the Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Sierra Club -- that want to stop a new feedlot without first obtaining a groundwater permit for the full amount of drinking water the cows will need.

The defendants -- Easterday Ranches, Washington state and the state's Ecology Department -- say they have the water rights and permits needed.

Attorney General Rob McKenna issued an opinion in September that the state Department of Ecology cannot reduce exempt withdrawals of groundwater below those specified under the law.

Gordon said even the amended form of SB6803 "is not good enough in its current form," but it's a step in the right direction.

By a 6-4 vote, the committee referred the amended bill to Ways and Means with a do-pass recommendation. Ways and means later referred the bill to Rules with a do-pass recommendation.