hirst decision

Many in the Washington Ag community are frustrated with the Department of Ecology.  The state Department of Ecology recently announced it has appointed public employees to represent agriculture on committees that will chart the future allocation of water in seven river basins.  Th...

Senator Jim Honeyford of Sunnyside was selected to receive the Honorary American FFA Degree next month during the 91st FFA Convention and Expo in Indianapolis.  The award is given to Individuals who have provided exceptional service on a national level to agriculture, agricultural education, or FFA.  ...

If you ask lawmakers in Olympia the biggest issue for the 2018 session, the answer most likely will depend on where they live.  Representative Vincent Buys, the ranking Republican on the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee said for rural Washingtonians, Hirst is the biggest ag issue, if not one of the biggest issues of the session.  ...

Democrats in the Washington State House have scheduled a work session Tuesday, December 12th to discuss the Hirst water rights decision from the State Supreme Court.  That was welcome news to Senate Republicans Judy Warnick and Jim Honeyford who led the charge to pass legislation to address the issue but couldn’t get their bill to the House floor.   M...

It’s been one year since a Whatcom County court ruled on what eventually came to be known as the Hirst Decision. That ruling has impacted rural Washington counties across the state, by making land owners responsible for studies to determine what impact construction projects could have on nearby water resources, rather than the Department of Economy issuing the findings.  ...

Last week, the Building Industry Association of Washington released a study showing the economic impact of the Hirst water rights decision.  The report shows an annual $6.9 billion economic hit to Washington, predominately in rural community, early 10,000 full time jobs lost in rural Washington each year and a loss of nearly $400 million in state and local taxes each year.  ...

A new study shows that failure to fix the Washington State Supreme Court decision on water rights could cost Washington State $7 billion.   Senator Tim Sheldon of Potlatch called the number astonishing.   “To put the brakes on in rural Washington is really going to hurt and as the study shows, it’s going to shift taxes to those that already are in business or have homes of higher value. No one is

Washington Governor Jay Inslee is touring the state highlighting projects that will not be funded due to the absence of a capital budget that was held up over negotiations on water rights.   As a last-second measure to get Senate Republicans to vote on the capital budget, Inslee and House Democrats pushed for a temporary two-year fix that he says would include some stability.  ...

One of the most heated issues during the 2017 legislative session has not been addressed, at least not to the linking of many Republicans across Washington.  The Hirst Fix, which would have addressed October’s Hirst Decision on Water Rights, passed the state Senate four times this session, by failed to get a vote in the House.  Senator ...

On Tuesday, the Washington senate took up and passed Senate Bill 5239, better known as the Hirst fix, in an effort to bring water access to rural households across the Evergreen State.  The legislation sponsored by Senator Judy Warnick was approved with bipartisan support in the senate during the regular legislative session.  Ho...