By Brian Mittge, The Chronicle, 11/13/2002
The possibility of riverbanks thick with trees lining bone-dry river beds played out in a presentation Tuesday night, part of expert presentations designed to help the Lewis County Planning Commission decide about future rules for agricultural lands.
Water is key for farms and houses, but right now the Chehalis River and its tributaries have more water allocated than actually flows during the summer, according to Washington Department of Ecology Water Rights Specialist Don Davidson.
There is a ready market for transferring those water rights, mainly from agricultural use to residential, he said.
That wasn't necessarily good news for the county planning commission, which is in the first month of testimony from a variety of experts about how to regulate farmland in such a way that farmers can make a living on it.
Eventually those regulations will include an update on the county's shorelines rules, requiring undisturbed buffers of trees and shrubs along fish-bearing streams.
Scott Brummer, a biologist from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said those buffers, which will most likely vary in width from 50 feet to 180 feet, make better habitat for fish and help protect banks from erosion.
A state Agriculture-Fish-Water Caucus is debating the various options for riparian buffers, Brummer said. He admits it's a controversial topic.
Lewis County will update its shorelines rules in 2005.
The county planning commission's immediate task is to reexamine its rules for agricultural lands, which includes prime farmland with water rights and most lands that regularly flood.
When the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board gave a thumbs-up to the county's rural development rules this summer, ag lands were specifically exempted.
The county is looking at what property is classified as ag land, and at how rules can be structured so farmers can make a living.
Tuesday's speakers are part of a long series of talks about the subject of viable agriculture.
One attendee at Tuesday's public meeting said river buffers are unfair to rural landowners.
"If you wanted to have people in town grow 12 square feet into native shrubbery for public use, we wouldn't have so much to complain about," said Erick Kalberg, a landowner in rural Winlock.
There are programs to pay landowners for the cost of creating and maintaining those buffers, he said.
Planning Commission member Lyle Hojem said rural landowners are already paying for set-asides.
Commission Chairman Kyle Heaton was particularly interested in a draft state provision for "fishless (channels) or constructed ditches."
Agricultural ditches run through a significant amount of farmland in Lewis County, he told the Fish and Wildlife representative.
Brummer said stream buffer rules would apply to ditches that are part of a natural stream, such as a straightened seasonal stream channel running from a hillside through a field.
Some grass buffers might apply to ag ditches, but only to the extent that farmers should not apply manure or fertilizer within about 20 feet of the creek, he said. Those rules aren't completed, nor are they specific, he said.
A mystery troubles those who try to allocate water from the Chehalis River: In the past 50 years, the average amount of water flowing past Grand Mound in the Chehalis River has dropped by 300 cubic feet per second, said Davidson.
Some of that loss comes from climate change, some is owing to domestic wells, and some from land usage, but that doesn't explain all the loss, he said.
The Chehalis River Basin is like a big bowl of gravel, he said. Water taken from wells reduces the river water level, because the Chehalis River has no snowpack to fill the river during the summer.
"I'm not going to say there's never going to be another drop of water allocated for agriculture, but given the problems we have, the chances are pretty darn slim," he said of new water rights applications.
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Brian Mittge covers politics, the environment and Lewis County government for The Chronicle. He may be reached by e-mail at bmittge@chronline.com, or by telephoning 807-8237.
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