The fight to protect the Nooksack River is deeper than adjudication
by Liam Walsh
On May 1, 2024, the Washington State Department of Ecology formally began the adjudication process for the Nooksack River watershed, or Water Resource Inventory Area 1 (WRIA 1). Across Whatcom County, communities of indigenous tribes, farmers and countless other groups are heavily invested in the Nooksack River watershed, its health, and the resources it provides. According to the Washington State department of health, “Adjudication is a legal process that requires water users to self-report their water use to the superior court. The court will make a decision that lists water uses by seniority.” The process also determines priority for water during times of scarcity. The process is expected to take 10 to 20 years.
Adjudication Manager at the Department of Ecology, Robin McPherson, explained the process in an email. “We hear people worrying that adjudication is a ‘water grab’ by government,” McPherson said. “In reality, Ecology does not make money from selling water. Since 1917, all waters in the state belong to the public. Ecology’s job is to be sure that water use is fair and legal.”
Lower Streamflows Causing Stress
As yearly snowpack declines, water levels and streamflows have become less reliable, and, among other effects, this has put strains on salmon populations. These factors have created anxiety for farmers about the availability of water, and have directly impacted indigenous tribes that rely on salmon.
Aaron Straight, the founder and director of Soulcraft Allstars, is working on a project to bring members of the community together. He explained the problems facing the Nooksack River and those who rely on it.
“We have farmers who are trying to irrigate, and there’s a real concern about how much water they need and how much water there is. The salmon are critical to our region and critical culturally to the Lummi and Nooksack tribes as part of who they are as a people, and so their inflows are really low,” Straight said. “There’s constant stress around the amount of water, the quality of water, the safety of the water, the flow of the river, all of that.”
Farmers
Rich Appel is a dairy farmer in Whatcom County. His parents moved to the county in 1967, and he has worked on the farm for the majority of his life. The farm is 500 acres on the Nooksack River and it produces cheese.
His farm requires a massive amount of water for his cows and their feed. With adjudication coming up, potential water scarcity has created stress for him and other farmers in the community.
“Without water, we would have to go somewhere else,” Appel said. “We’ve known and been concerned about this for a number of years. For decades, people have been talking about it.”
For Appel, adjudication has created the need for consultants and lawyers, which puts an additional strain on his costs. Another problem within the industry is a lack of investment. According to Appel, the uncertainty around water rights has discouraged banks and investors.
McPherson cautioned that this is a problem adjudication will fix.
“Right now it is very difficult, if not impossible, to obtain new water rights at the scale needed to develop entirely new large commercial agriculture projects,” McPherson said. “The law protects the legal water use of existing farms in the order of seniority — those who have continually invested in their farm operation are senior to newcomers. Adjudication will establish the priority dates of water rights and make it possible for water to be sold, leased or banked for other uses. This will provide more certainty and predictability for long-term planning and investment.”
Another pressure Appel mentioned was the survival of the farming community in the county as a whole. We do need this greater community of farmers. If we lose too many, you kind of lose this critical mass, and pretty soon the suppliers don’t have enough people to keep their businesses open, so they leave, and that’s happened,” Appel said. “All the way down the I-5 corridor. So we know that that can happen, and so that’s kind of why we’re doing as much as we can as farmers to try to advocate and keep this farming community alive.”
Tribes
The water adjudication process is of vital concern to the Lummi and Nooksack nations, of which the watershed is their ancestral land. One such concern is fishing. Limited water flows and other degradation of the river could put fish populations at further risk.
Angela Letoi, a storyteller and member of the Nooksack Indian Tribe explained the value of the river.
“Since time immemorial, we have had a really close connection with the Nooksack River. Our water is life. It has a strength in it. It can give you life and it can take your life, Letoi said. “That river is what connected us as family.”
“My heart is broken for our salmon, you know, it’s broken because our salmon need to be able to have that water taken care of and the land actually respected so that they can reproduce,” she said.
Tammy Cooper-Woodrich is a Nooksack tribal elder, and Letoi’s mother. She explained what the river and its salmon mean to her. “I have two grandsons that are fishermen, and their welfare is important to me, too,” Cooper-Woodrich said. “And no more water means no more fish. You know our cultural ways are saying bye bye because there’s no fish, and fish are what kept us alive. That water is what kept us alive.”
Both Cooper-Woodrich and Letoi highlighted the importance of collaboration, communication and education among all parties in the community. They underscored that adjudication is a legal battle, and, without community organization, the problems facing the watershed will continue.
“There are people at Lummi and there are people at Nooksack who don’t want anything to do with this idea,” Cooper- Woodrich said. “They want to continue to work in their silos so they can continue to get the money. Just how it is in every government.”
Stop Water Wars Brings Communities Together
The organization, Water Wars (how to avoid), has made an effort to bridge the gap between the communities affected by the problems facing the Nooksack River. Aaron Straight plays a key role in this organizational process and explained what his goals are.
• “We fundamentally just believe that relationships come first, and that long before we can talk about solutions, we need to be in a relationship with the river and with each other,” he said. “That takes listening.”
The organization has hosted and continues to host gatherings between members of the tribes, farmers, and other community members with the aim to achieve common ground and understanding.
“Our goal, or our dream, our best outcome would be that we would see the folks from our community co-led by tribes and farmers, supported by civic organizations, supported by the general public, who are all affected by this water issue, that we would have a shared vision for the Nooksack River Basin,” Straight said.
Both Letoi and Appel have attended these events, and are steadfast that communication and trust between the parties is the most effective way to solve the community’s problems.
“In order to make sure that this comes together, and we do this together, we really need to be able to hold each other’s hands,” Letoi said. “We need to be able to come together as a community. Our tribe really, truly believes that coming together and being one is a good thing.”
Straight summed up his vision for the watershed. “We have an opportunity to work together to create a scenario where the Nooksack River is healthy for farms, is healthy for fish, and healthy for future generations for the next 170 years, and, if we work together, that’s possible.”
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Liam Walsh is a senior at Western studying journalism with a news/editorial focus. In his free time, he plays on the Western rugby team and enjoys hiking and swimming.
