Fallout over water ruling heats up in Washington

Several senators criticized Tuesday a recent Washington Supreme Court decision that threatens to halt home building in farm communities and said they will try to counteract the decision in the upcoming legislative session. “It’s totally ridiculous, what’s going on. It’s killing rural America,” said Republican Sen. Brian Dansel, who represents the state’s sparsely populated northeastern corner.  The 6-3 ruling in Hirst v. Whatcom County in October struck down the routine approval of new domestic wells. It also gave the 2017 Legislature another major battle along rural and urban lines.  The issue of whether wells can be drilled in places not served by waterlines has “bumped its way to the top of our list,” said Moses Lake Republican Judy Warnick, chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture, Water and Rural Development Committee. The committee was briefed on the ruling by the Department of Ecology and others. Domestic wells statewide are responsible for 1 percent of water consumption, and Ecology said new wells for single-family homes were OK in Whatcom County.