by Eric Hirst and Fred Likkel
Introduction
In wet, rainy Whatcom County, a lack of water should be the least of our worries. Yes, we are blessed with lots of rain, and both surface and groundwater in most months, but a deeper dive reveals a surprising struggle: in the summer our streams often do not have enough water to keep salmon healthy. Improving water-use efficiency (WUE) could help increase streamflows, but faces a serious legal obstacle, discussed below.
Background
Two key factors drive this growing summer crisis. Climate change is the primary factor. While our total yearly precipitation is relatively stable, the higher temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns — more rain in the winter and less in the summer — lead to higher winter flows and even lower summer flows. Second, Whatcom County’s population continues to grow, and this means more impervious surfaces (roads, buildings) and less natural landscapes to capture and hold rainfall. Instead, winter streamflows increase, while summer flows, which are fed by the rapidly shrinking glaciers, get worse.
What is the result of this ongoing dilemma? Summer streamflows throughout the Nooksack River watershed are declining by several percent a year. (1) Flows are already too low at times to support healthy salmon populations, and will surely get worse over the next few decades. Earlier runoff of snow, and increasing spring and summer temperatures means that irrigated agriculture’s demand for water will increase through both a longer irrigation season and higher summer air temperatures. This large and growing mismatch between the timing of water supply and demand requires prompt action. Our local and state water managers should build a robust portfolio of water supply and storage projects to benefit both instream flows for salmon and our human water needs.
Most of the flows in the mainstem Nooksack River come from above the confluence of the three forks, and therefore above where most of the population resides. While climate change is especially wreaking havoc in this important area of the watershed, there is little we can do immediately to address this issue without significant investment to capture and store winter water for summer release. Supply and storage projects typically require many years (decades?) to conduct environmental reviews, obtain regulatory permits, and secure funding before construction can even begin. But in the meantime, we can focus on WUE, especially irrigation for farms, golf courses, lawns and gardens, which accounts for the vast majority of summer water use.
Legal Difficulties
In May 2024, the Washington State Department of Ecology initiated a water-rights adjudication for the Nooksack Basin in Whatcom Superior Court. The adjudication will likely result in a determination that we now use more water than is legally available. The obvious response is to reduce human use of water, and, thereby, leave more for salmon and other wildlife.
Unfortunately, farmers face a critical legal barrier to efficiency that complicates the issue: relinquishment. This 1967 state law provides that a water right is subject to relinquishment back to the state for five or more consecutive years of non-use, unless a statutory exception to relinquishment applies. (2, 3) Relinquishment is a “use-it-or-lose-it” anachronism of Western water law that is seriously out of date and contrary to good public policy. Originally, the doctrine was created to encourage economic development. Implicitly, the state has acknowledged that applied strictly, relinquishment has harsh consequences for water users and thus the law now includes several exceptions to the general relinquishment law.
How does this affect farms? The haphazard way that water law was rolled out a century ago left many gaps in knowledge and understanding in the farming community. Some farms received generous water-right allotments, and some received none. Given the appearance of plentiful water sources, the issue of water rights was hardly considered back then. By the time these issues started getting recognized in the 1980s, there were few solutions available.
As farmers have become more efficient with their water use and more aware of water law, a serious problem arose. Many times they wanted to share legal water on one piece of land that had plenty of water rights with another piece that didn’t have enough water.
The law, however, complicates this solution. A farm is not allowed to “keep” legal water it doesn’t use because of more efficient irrigation practices. Rather, that legal water is “relinquished” — so why would a farmer invest their money in conservation when the result is the loss of both money and water? The result: the legal system creates a strong disincentive to farms – the biggest water users in the lower river system – to conserve water.
Efficiency Solutions
If the legal system didn’t get in our way, could farms conserve more water? Absolutely! Efficiency projects are more easily and quickly designed and implemented, usually at much lower cost and with no permits required, compared to the alternatives of water storage and new supply. Although all Washington state water utilities are required to run WUE programs, farmers currently have little support for such efforts.
There are two basic ways that farmers can improve WUE: adopt more efficient maintenance and irrigation scheduling practices, and acquire and install more efficient irrigation equipment. The former options require minimal capital investments, but do require time and effort.
Here are three examples of ways that agricultural efficiency could be increased.
Irrigation Scheduling: The U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey shows that farmers use a variety of methods to decide when to irrigate their crops. (4) Research shows that soil or plant moisturesensing devices and automated scheduling services can greatly increase efficiency much more than traditional methods. While many farms use these techniques, there is much room for improvement. These sophisticated tools may require more extensive training and support to increase adoption rates. (5)
As one example of how improved methods can save water, soil moisture sensors can help farmers decide when and how much to irrigate. Some soils permit application of large amounts of water at infrequent intervals, while other soils require smaller applications more frequently. Recent technolog y developments allow farmers to monitor these water-saving devices and scheduling algorithms from their smartphone or laptop. (6)
Robotic Irrigation Systems: This new technology was recently tested at local dairy farms, with support from the Whatcom Conservation District. (7) It could replace overhead irrigation systems with equipment that releases water at lower pressures and much closer to the ground, reducing evaporation and wind drift. This system discharges water only 18” above the ground and because of this can achieve much greater efficiency than traditional overhead irrigation: 90 percent vs. 65 percent. Also, this system is highly automated and can be monitored and managed remotely.
Drip Irrigation: Traditionally, drip irrigation was not applicable to annual crops because of the need for fall tillage. However, one Whatcom seed potato farmer implemented an automated method to remove the drip system each fall and reinstall it each spring. (8)
This application of drip irrigation cuts water use, relative to overhead systems, by over onethird, from about 65 percent efficiency to 95 percent. Such systems also have the potential to provide higher-quality potatoes and greater yield, in addition to the substantial improvement in water-use efficiency.
These new technologies, while more water efficient, are often not cost effective compared to traditional methods. For example, the robotic irrigation equipment noted above is currently five times more expensive than traditional systems. Finding incentives for farms to invest in new systems through grants and cost-share programs, especially for lowervalue crops, will go a long way toward helping achieve these efficiencies.
A Path Forward
These three examples suggest that enormous potential exists to improve agricultural WUE through the use of new technologies and more efficient practices. Fixing the antiquated legal issues that disincentivize such improvements is a must. Combining legal incentives with technical and financial support for farmers to identify, purchase, install and use these improved practices and technologies could lead to large efficiency gains.
Taking these steps requires initiative from our local, state, and federal leaders. Unfortunately, the Department of Ecology’s (Ecology) chosen path currently is narrowly focused on the paper-water- rights adjudication. We urge Ecology to expand its scope and address the need for wet-water solutions.
Ecology, in response to our concerns about relinquishment, notes that it prevents hoarding of water rights and encourages beneficial use of water. While investor purchase of many water rights might have been a problem in the past, that is not the case in Whatcom County today. Indeed, the opposite is true: the basin’s water is over-appropriated.
Ecology also touts its Trust Water Rights Program as a way to protect water rights from relinquishment. (9) In this program, a farmer would donate all or part of a water right, temporarily or permanently, to the program. And that right can be subsequently withdrawn and used as allowed. Although Ecology claims the program has considerable flexibility, the fact that only six or seven Whatcom farmers, out of almost 1,600, participate shows us that this program is not attractive to farmers. (10)
Some might object to relieving farmers from relinquishment unless elimination includes a “quid pro quo” — requirements that farmers must meet to qualify for relief from relinquishment. Such measures could include provisions to share the otherwise relinquished water between the farmer and instream flows, require the farmer to meet certain WUE standards, and/or require the farmer to report water-meter data to Ecology on a monthly basis. If the incentives are there, we are confident the farms and community will embrace such solutions.
Conclusion
- Whatcom County faces serious summertime water supply/ demand problems. And this imbalance between declining supplies and growing demand is almost certain to get worse during the coming decades.
- Improving water-use efficiency on Whatcom farms could help reduce this imbalance.
- Washington state water law has major obstacles due to antiquated provisions that hinder efforts to achieve potential water savings from agricultural WUE practices and technologies.
- Our leaders need to show initiative in addressing and resolving these issues.
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Eric Hirst is a retired energy policy analyst and a lifelong environmentalist.
Fred Likkel is executive director of Whatcom Family Farmers.
Endnotes:
- E. Hirst and F. Likkel, “Whatcom Water Supply/Demand Imbalance: Time for Action,” Whatcom Watch, July 2025.
- RCW 90.14.180 reads in part: “Any person hereafter entitled to divert or withdraw waters of the state through an appropriation … who abandons or voluntarily fails, without sufficient cause, to beneficially use all or any part of said right for a period of five successive years shall relinquish such right or portion thereof, and such right shall revert back to the state …” (from Ecology, Water Right Relinquishment, Publication 98-1812-wr, May 2025).
- RH2 Engineering, Water Rights and Relinquishment in Whatcom County, Jan. 2020.
- U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 2023 Irrigation and Water Management Survey
- G.D. Schaible and M.P. Aillery, “Water Conservation in Irrigated Agriculture: Trends and Challenges in the Face of Emerging Demands,” U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Sept. 2012.
- R. T. Peters, “Managing Irrigation Water on Different Soils in the Same Field,” Whatcom Ag Monthly, 2(8), August 15, 2013.
- B. Helm, “360 Rain technology comes to Lynden,” Lynden Tribune, Sept. 11, 2024. Also T. Gearheart, personal communication, Whatcom Conservation District, August 4, 2025.
- “Every Last Drop – Whatcom Family Farmers,” Whatcom Family Farmers, “Every Last Drop,” video, July 2025.
- Ecology, Trust Water Rights Program, Pub/ 12-11-054, July 2024.
- Noah Wentzel, personal communication, Ecology Water Resources Program, Jan. 14, 2026.
