Update: Kittitas County Group Petitions Ecology for Limits on Exempt Wells

Ecology Announcement:

"The Department of Ecology will host two "listening sessions" for the general public on ground water management in Kittitas County on Oct. 24 and Oct. 25, 2007. Ecology has received a petition from water right holders in the county seeking a temporary moratorium on new ground water wells in Kittitas County. The petitioners are members of a group called Aqua Permanente who are concerned that rapid rural residential growth will impair senior water rights and stream flows in the Kittitas and Yakima valleys. Click on the link below for more information: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2007news/2007-305.html"

Certain water wells in Washington are exempt from the requirement for a water right, among them domestic wells pumping less than 5000 gallons per day. Now a group in Kittitas County wants the Department of Ecology to promulgate a rule that would suspend this exemption. David Lester of the Yakima Herald-Republic has the story.

"The newly created group, calling itself Aqua Permanente, has petitioned the state Ecology Department for a rule that would prohibit the drilling of new wells until the impacts on existing water rights and streamflows are known."