WCA seeks intervener status in stockwater exemption case

Washington Ag Today August 26, 2009 The Washington Cattlemen’s Association has asked a Thurston County Superior Court to allow it to intervene in that lawsuit over the state’s stockwatering exemption.

The Center for Environmental Policy, the Sierra Club and others, have sued the Washington Department of Ecology and Easterday Ranches claiming stockwater wells need a permit and that stock watering is limited to five-thousand gallons a day, or limited to family subsistence farming.“

At issue is Easterday Ranches groundwater exemption for a feedlot. WCA executive vice president Jack Field says the cattlemen’s association should be allowed to intervene because no one else is representing the cow-calf, forage-based operator.

Field: “The effect if this case is to go against the livestock industry are going to be crippling. It could result in a five-thousand gallon limitation on all stockwater withdrawals regardless of your operation, regardless of your size or your stockwatering uses. So the Washington Cattlemen‘s Association Board very quickly made the decision we need to be involved in this case and most certainly be there to represent the needs and issues of forage-based operations.”

WCA President, Dick Coon Jr. is challenging every cow-calf and stock operator in Washington to send a donation of one dollar per head of cattle they manage to a litigation fund. Donations can be made to WCA Litigation Account, c/o Stockwater Case, PO Box 96, Ellensburg, WA 98926.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.