[Vision2020] Water Conservancy Board approves Hawkins Companies' water-rights transfer requests

[Mark Solomon]

Mr. DeVoe can hope all he wants for a fall groundbreaking but there 
are some very significant hydrogeological issues that the Whitman 
Conservancy Board, all well-meaning volunteer non-technical people, 
deferred judgement on instead punting to the opinion of the Dept. of 
Ecology hydrogeologist who based his findings on, shall I kindly say, 
limited research. You can rest either assured (or uneasily) that 
comments of substance will be submitted to DOE. Any decision of DOE 
is appealable to the Washington State Pollution Control Hearing 
Board, WA's administrative law body for such appeals, where the legal 
precedents ignored by the DOE hydrologist were established and abided 
by. All documents related to the decision can be found on the PBAC 
website.

Mark

At 11:10 AM -0700 7/26/07, Dan Carscallen wrote:
>  >From the Daily News
>
>Developing Story
>Water Conservancy Board approves Hawkins Companies' water-rights
>transfer requests
>Updated at: 07:07 am
>
>Hawkins Companies moved one step closer to beginning work on its
>proposed 700,000-square-foot retail center just across the state line
>from Moscow when the Whitman County Water Conservancy Board recommended
>approval of the company's water-rights transfer requests Wednesday.
>
>The board unanimously approved four water-rights transfer applications
>from the Boise-based firm, but the Washington State Department of
>Ecology must still give final approval on the applications.
>
>Water Conservancy Board Chairman Edward Schultz said the Department of
>Ecology will have up to 45 days to either accept, reject or ask for
>clarification on the board's recommendation. The board's recommendation
>becomes a firm decision if Ecology does not take action within the
>45-day period.
>
>Hawkins Project Manager Jeffrey DeVoe said the company hopes to begin
>construction as early as the fall, and all that is holding up the
>process is approval from Ecology.