Conservationists head back to court with challenge of WSU water rights
Conservationists head back to court with challenge of WSU water rights
Media Advisory
April 11, 2011
Appeal of ‘the golf course case’ set for June
Conservationists head back to court
with challenge of WSU water rights
Contacts:
· Scott Cornelius, 509-332-2982, petro@pullman.com
· Rachael Paschal Osborn, 509-954-5641 rdpaschal@earthlink.net
PULLMAN, Wash.—An alliance of water conservationists will be in Whitman County Superior Court in June, challenging Washington State University’s legal claim to far more groundwater than it has ever used.
The court will hear an appeal of their lawsuit, which was prompted by WSU’s expanded pumping to irrigate the greens of its Palouse Ridge Golf Club. The suit is a test of Washington’s Municipal Water Law, with implications far beyond the Pullman area, where groundwater levels are dropping.
“Our case could set a precedent and is being watched closely by those concerned about public water supplies statewide,” said Rachael Paschal Osborn, attorney for the conservationists, and executive director of the Center for Environmental Law & Policy.
The Superior Court hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. June 6 in Colfax.
Osborn represents Pullman property owner Scott Cornelius, the Palouse Water Conservation Network, and the Palouse Group of the Sierra Club. In addition to WSU, the Washington Department of Ecology, which approved the university’s expanded use of water, is a defendant in the appeal.
The Pollution Control Hearings Board hears challenges of Department of Ecology water right decisions. In 2008, the Board ruled in favor of WSU and Ecology. Conservationists appealed to Whitman County Court, but then agreed to delay the case while waiting for the ruling on a challenge to the Municipal Water Law in the Washington State Supreme Court.
That case, Lummi Nation vs. State of Washington, addresses the constitutionality of the law, which validates paper rights held by public and private water suppliers — that is, rights to water that the suppliers can legally pump but have never used.
In October 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that the law was valid on its face, but cautioned that they were not deciding the facts of any particular case. The Court specifically referenced the WSU water rights case as one it was not deciding.
WSU and Pullman pump from the Grande Ronde Aquifer, which also provides 70 percent of the water used by Moscow and the University of Idaho. As measured by a well on the WSU campus, the aquifer has been dropping an average of 1.3 feet per year since the 1930s.
“If we win this case, WSU will lose its legal right to huge amounts of water that may not even exist,” said Cornelius, whose concerns about golf course expansion launched the lawsuit. “The University will have much more incentive to conserve and won’t be tempted to sell any of its water rights—something easy to imagine at times like this, when it faces dramatic budget cuts.”
WSU officials hope to use reclaimed water on the golf course, but have never gotten state funding from the Washington Legislature to build a pipeline from the Pullman water treatment plant.
Don Coombs of the Palouse Group of the Sierra Club said that, instead of a golf course, WSU should be investing in and inventing sustainable water systems.
“This university sits atop a declining aquifer,” said Coombs. “WSU should be leader in water sustainability not only in Pullman but throughout the nation.”
A chronology and more details on the WSU water rights case are available at www.pwcn.org
Additional Links:
•Conservationists' opening brief (March 25, 2011)
April 11, 2011
Dropping Water Levels, Grande Ronde Aquifer. Since measurements were started in the 1930s, water levels in the Grande Ronde Aquifer have been declining 1-2 feet per year. 50,000 people in the university towns of Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID and in outlying areas depend on this water. Washington State is permitting WSU to mine this aquifer in violation of state law. The WSU water rights decision would accelerate the mining of the Grand Ronde Aquifer. Local citizen groups -- concerned about their communities’ water future with a declining aquifer -- challenged the DOE’s decision.
Fossil Water. Irrigating WSU’s new 18-hole golf course with water from the Grande Ronde Aquifer. Scotty Cornelius photo