Analysis: Water Rights
Who’ll stop the drain? Fishers, farmers, land developers, households....Many special-interest groups appear headed for a collision at intersection of “My Water” and “No Way” in the Nooksack River Basin.
By Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy
W
ithout water, land is useless. Without water, property rights become meaningless. Without water, economic vitality drains away. Whatcom County’s diverse water users agree that much. But go any further, and the trail of water rights becomes a knotted web of differing opinions. Controversy about water here runs as high as the Nooksack River in springtime. 24 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
How is it that water in Whatcom County, with plenty of rain and a sizable river, becomes a problem? In 1998, the endangered species act decreed the implementation of recovery plans for Chinook and other fish throughout Puget Sound. That recovery requires all of us to leave enough water in the streams to protect fish. We also have to take enough out to provide for people. Plus, the tribes have treaty rights to harvest salmon and
shellfish, said Roger Brown, Water District Caucus representative, and manager of Birch Bay Water and Sewer District. Those treaty rights require leaving enough water in streams to sustain that harvest. “There was an attempt in 19992000 to reach answers through consensus,” Brown said. “That failed, so there’s an impasse, and the tribes are seeking to resolve this through litigation.” (Two years ago the Lummi and Nooksack tribes formally requested of the federal government a