WA State Officials Fail To Provide Leadership as Whatcom County Farmers Face Water Rights Quagmire

(EVERSON, Wash.) Washington state officials have failed their duty to support negotiations toward critical solutions for fish, farms and the community in the water rights legal quagmire unfolding in Whatcom County. This, despite the fact that the state itself began the damaging litigation in the first place.

It’s been over 5 years since the Washington State Department of Ecology announced plans to sue all Whatcom water users to force them to prove their right to water, in a so-called ‘water rights adjudication.’ Yet, neither Ecology or any other state leaders so far have formed any meaningful effort to support bringing key stakeholders together to collaborate on solutions to the community’s multifaceted water crisis.

“Early in Whatcom’s process, Ecology made empty promises about supporting collaboration,” said Ben Tindall, Save Family Farming Executive Director. “But they have taken none of the necessary steps to help lead stakeholders toward negotiations, apparently preferring instead to focus entirely on the kind of litigation that failed–and actually caused a lot of unnecessary harm–in Yakima.”

Apparently, state leaders did not learn the lessons they claimed to have learned through the Yakima River basin’s water rights adjudication, where decades of court acrimony and millions of dollars were wasted before collaborative community-driven negotiations finally achieved a groundbreaking accord to solve the crisis.

“It’s appalling—rather than learning from the Yakima process, Ecology is doubling down on the same reckless litigation strategy that caused so much harm before. It’s as if they’ve chosen to abandon leadership entirely, leaving farmers and communities to fend for themselves while the state drags them through endless legal hell,” Tindall said. “The residents of Whatcom County need leadership, not lawsuits. They need solutions, not scorched-earth legal battles. We’ve all had enough of the state’s empty promises and inaction—it’s time for them to step up.”

In light of this failure, Save Family Farming calls on incoming Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller and new Governor Bob Ferguson to ‘right the ship’ left adrift by the previous administration and immediately convene vigorous efforts to bring stakeholders in Water Resource Inventory Area (WRIA) 1 together in support of work toward a negotiated settlement.

As over 30,000 Whatcom water users receive summons to file their legal claims to water with the courts, they’re looking to these state officials to provide leadership toward a process that will solve the community’s water crises, protect communities, and support salmon recovery and local farming.