FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Feb. 13, 2003

Ecology Department awards $1.7 million for water-measuring devices

OLYMPIA - The Department of Ecology (Ecology) has approved 75 grant applications worth nearly $1.7 million to help water-right holders across the state buy and install 625 water-measuring devices.

So far, applications have come mostly from water users who received orders in 2002 directing them to measure and make periodic reports about their water use to Ecology.

The department sent 713 orders to farms, irrigation districts, municipalities and other top water users in 16 state watersheds where water levels often drop too low to meet the needs of fish. The directives are the result of a 2001 court order from Thurston County Superior Court. For some water users, the reporting requirement started in January.

The single largest grant will go to the Walla Walla Conservation District. The department will provide $828,000 so the conservation district can help area farmers and irrigation districts purchase and install 300 water-measuring devices.

Ecology also has agreed to give $210,000 to the Columbia Conservation District to buy and install 80 measuring devices; $105,000 to the Asotin County Conservation District for 40 water-measuring equipment; and $62,500 to the Pomeroy Conservation District for another 40 devices.

The conservation-district awards will cover 85 percent of the costs to purchase and install metering devices. Individual landowners will be responsible for the remaining 15 percent.

The other $500,000 in grants approved by the department will go to individual farms, small drinking-water systems, irrigation districts and municipalities.

The legislature set aside $3.4 million in cost-share funds, and approximately $1.7 million are still available.

"We recently broadened our grant criteria so those who need or want to measure their water use can apply for assistance," said Ken Schuster, who oversees Ecology's water-measuring program. "We hope people continue to take advantage of the funding, because the money runs out at the end of June."

Schuster said eligible candidates can receive up to $50,000 to purchase, install and calibrate new water-measuring devices. The average price for a single device is around $1,500.

The top water users in the following basins received water-measuring orders in 2002:

Western Washington

• Cedar-Sammamish (1 order)
• Chambers-Clover (28 orders)
• Duwamish-Green (2 orders)
• Elwha-Dungeness (14 orders)
• Nooksack (35 orders)
• Puyallup-White (71 orders)
• Quilcene-Snow (65 orders)
• Snohomish (2 orders)

Eastern Washington

• Lower Yakima (no orders)*
• Methow (45 orders)
• Middle Snake (31 orders)
• Naches (no orders)*
• Okanogan (139 orders)
• Upper Yakima (no orders)*
• Walla Walla (257 orders)
• Wenatchee (23 orders

*Note: Water rights in these basins are currently under adjudication in Yakima County Superior Court. The court has put metering and reporting provisions in all the adjudicated water-right certificates it has issued.

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