Adjudication? Is Washington State suing you?

Adjudication? Is Washington State suing you? The short answer is: yes.

Have you heard about water adjudication of the Nooksack Basin? The Department of Ecology is about to sue the federal government in Whatcom County Superior Court as well as 15,000 other water right holders. You or someone who represents you is likely one of them if you live in the area on this map:

That is basically all of inhabited Whatcom County except for Lake Samish plus a few parts of Skagit County.

You may ask, “Why is Ecology suing us?” It’s complicated, but it’s worth going into a little bit of history. In the eastern seaboard, we have what is called “riparian” water rights. In layman’s terms, this means that water goes with the property, and if there is a water shortage, everybody gets less water.

In most of the Western United States, we don’t have riparian water rights; we have what is called “prior appropriation” water rights. This comes from the fact that there were ranchers that settled here and needed a certain amount of water in order to feed their families and their cattle and flocks.

The basic difference between riparian and prior appropriation is that if there is a drought in a prior appropriation state, the holder of a senior water right gets all the water he has a right to, and only then is water legally allocated to the junior water right holders. The reason this is coming to a head now is that there are disputes about water with the various water right holders, and there has been poor record keeping over the past 100+ years.

Who has senior water rights? That is part of what adjudication is meant to establish. The history of water rights is complicated, and there are many players. These include the cities, the Lummi and Nooksack tribes, the Nooksack River itself and the fish in the river, commercial agriculture, hobby farmers, and people that own property with acreage that they like to irrigate.

Here is a screenshot from the court form that shows who the involved parties are:

(The federal government, UNITED STATES of AMERICA, is involved as representative of the tribes.)

Will my drinking water supply be cut off? Hopefully not. The Department of Ecology has stated that they will not cut off any household water up to 500 gallons per day. But if you ever want to use more than 500 gallons per day or irrigate more than half an acre of land, you need to work to defend your right. It is recommended that you use the full-length court form in order to defend your rights:

https://apps.ecology.wa.gov/publications/SummaryPages/ecy070744.html

What’s next? I’m not a lawyer, and we cannot advise you on what to do next. That being said, it is highly recommended that you talk to grandma and grandpa, great-grandparents, or anybody else who has firsthand knowledge of the history of your well and its usage, gather pictures, get affidavits, etc. If you are party to the case, you will receive a summons in the mail, probably this summer.

There are more resources to help. Perry Eskridge is the attorney for the Whatcom County Association of Realtors, and he is available to field your questions! Here is his contact information:

    - Email: perrye@wcar.net

    - Office phone: 360-671-5477, ext. 203

Here is an article from the Department of Ecology:

    - https://ecology.wa.gov/Water-Shorelines/Water-supply/Water-rights/Adjudications/Nooksack

Subscribe to the "Let's Talk About Adjudication - Nooksack" newsletter from Ecology:

    - https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/WAECY/subscriber/new?qsp=ecology

Here is a registration link for an online discussion with Ecology:

    - Register

As always, let us know if you have any questions.

Jeremiah for the Ramsey Team

Jeremiah Ramsey

360.499.2221

jeremiahramsey@kw.com