[Vision2020] WSU Sued Over Water Rights

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (July 8, 2008) Spokesman Review -

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WSU sued over water rights 
Conservation groups say irrigating golf course irresponsible

Shawn Vestal 
Staff writer

A coalition of conservation groups opposed to a new golf course at 
Washington State University has sued the school, arguing that a recent 
court ruling invalidates the majority of WSU's water rights.

The suit is the latest step in a long-running battle over the new Palouse 
Ridge Golf Club, which will use millions of gallons a year from the Grande 
Ronde Aquifer for irrigation. 

The aquifer is the primary source of drinking water for the Pullman-Moscow 
area, and it's been declining by about a foot and a half annually for 
years, according to the Center for Environmental Law & Policy, one of the 
plaintiffs in the suit.

The suit contends that WSU should lose about two-thirds of its current 
water rights, given a June court ruling in King County that the state's 
Municipal Water Law is unconstitutional. The law allows "municipal water 
suppliers" – broadly defined to include large users like WSU – to hold 
onto unused water rights indefinitely. 

"Water users who aren't fully using their water rights don't need them," 
said Rachael Paschal Osborn, lead attorney in the case. "The next user in 
line does." 

The King County ruling will be appealed by the state, attorney general Rob 
McKenna said Monday.
 
WSU has argued that while the course will use about 55 million gallons a 
year for irrigation, the university has cut its overall water use by about 
twice that over the past two decades. James Tinney, a spokesman for WSU, 
said Monday that the university thinks the recent decision in King County 
does not apply to the school's water rights case.

"From our point of view, this is about using our existing water rights in 
the most efficient ways we can," he said. "We don't believe that (case) is 
going to have an impact on our water-rights consolidation."

Opponents of the course have been making complicated legal arguments 
against the expansion of water use for several years, but their central 
objection is simple: With a declining aquifer that the region's residents 
rely on for drinking water, irrigating a golf course is irresponsible. 

"We simply don't have the water to squander on a golf course," said Scotty 
Cornelius, a plaintiff in the suit and a Pullman resident, in a news 
release. "Water levels in the Grande Ronde are already dropping and alarm 
bells should be ringing." 

The lawsuit was filed last week in Whitman County Superior Court by 
Cornelius, the Center for Environmental Law and Policy, and other 
conservation groups. It seeks to have the order allowing the consolidation 
of WSU's six water rights overturned, because it was based on the state 
law that the King County court found unconstitutional.

The consolidation essentially allows WSU to pump all its allowed water 
from any of its wells, rather than limiting its withdrawal for each water 
right to a single well. Opponents have argued that the decision will allow 
the university to expand its water usage; WSU says it doesn't change the 
amount it has the right to use, just where it can get the water.

WSU only uses about a third of its water rights, Osborn said, and it 
should lose the other rights. That would put the issue of golf course 
irrigation into sharp relief, she said.

"They would have to figure out how to make do with a lot less," she 
said. "They might have to end up making some hard choices about whether 
they want to use their potable water for golf course irrigation."

The conservation groups have challenged the consolidation decision on 
several points, including arguments that it damages the public welfare and 
that the state failed to fully analyze the situation. They lost with a 
state appeals board and in their bid to have that decision reviewed. Part 
of the lawsuit asks the court to review those decisions.

The golf course has been a priority for the university administration for 
years. Two years ago, the $8 million project to expand and renovate the 
old nine-hole course began, and officials say the new course will provide 
a championship-level venue for tournaments and an attraction that will 
draw visitors and help fuel the local economy. The course is set to open 
Labor Day weekend.

WSU officials have planned to pay for the project with private donations, 
though the fundraising has lagged behind the university's goals and the 
project's costs. As of last month, WSU had raised more than $2 million, 
and it has borrowed from its real-estate funds to help pay for the course.

WSU says its new course is developed for maximum water efficiency, and 
will use less water per acre than the previous course. It has also 
attempted in the past to get state funding to use treated wastewater to 
irrigate the course, and it's taking such a proposal to the Legislature 
again in the upcoming session.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college 
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)


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