Supreme Court Well Ruling

I'm Bob Larson. Drilling for water on your own property will now be more complicated and a lot more expensive.

The Washington State Supreme Court ruled this month that counties must verify that new domestic wells will not harm existing water sources, beyond regulations set by the Department of Ecology.

The Washington Farm Bureau's Evan Sheffels says the ruling is especially burdensome for farmers ...

EVAN SHEFFELS ... "What it does is make it a lot harder for our members to be able to build a home for say their grandkid or their kid that wants to come home and farm. It's going to make it a lot harder to site housing for their employees and those kinds of things they need to attract the labor force that they need and bring folks home, bring their kids home to farm."

Sheffels says any kind of appeal would likely be aimed at lawmakers who understand the financial weight of the ruling

EVAN SHEFFELS ... "The budget implications of this decision could be huge, not just for rural areas but for the whole state budget, because now we're going to have to find funding for counties to figure out how to make these decisions. It's very complicated, very expensive decisions that require a lot of hydrological expertise and that will take money from other budget priorities. So we're going to have a conversation with legislators this year to see if there's a way to get a better outcome than what the Supreme Court gave us."

The case stemmed from a challenge by Futurewise and other environmental groups in Whatcom County against ules allowing new wells for single-family homes in rural areas.