[Vision2020] Hawkins Agreement Dead

[Garrett Clevenger]

The water bill, S1002, was unanimously defeated in the House Resources and Conservation Committee today, as Tom alerted us.

>From what I can tell, that means the Hawkins agreement is dead, unless Moscow can convince Whitman County to sign it, which seems highly unlikely.

So Moscow will not be selling Hawkins water or provide sewer services. Hawkins will use water from their own wells. They'll have to figure out their own sewer disposal.

Moscow's city council essentially gave Hawkins their water rights, facilitating this mega-malls development. They agreed to drop the appeal to prevent Hawkins from receiving their water rights, and by wanting to charge them 2.5 times the going rate for water, that was all the excuse Whitman County needed to prevent the agreement from going any farther without rewriting Idaho's water law.

Fortunately Idaho's House RCC was aware enough of the implications of rewriting the water law just to make the Hawkins agreement workable, and they sent a clear message to those wishing to sell Idaho's water out of state that, for at least the Hawkins case, it was a losing proposition.

Considering the economic conditions, I have a hard time believing someone would invest in a $100 million mega-mall whose ability to have water in the long run is not yet proven.  Investors are less likely going to want to open shop in a mall that is not guaranteed to have secure water. Hawkins still needs to prove its wells can produce enough water over time. If they are shown to be negatively affecting senior water-right holders, there is a chance they will lose their water. Game over.

So perhaps the threat of Hawkins to Moscow's businesses is not so imminent.

gclev