Sierra Club says 2003 law threatens state water systems

Concerned that rivers are running dryer and fish are struggling to maintain populations, the Sierra Club is asking for help to challenge a 2003 water rights law.

On Thursday, the group sent a letter to state Attorney General Rob McKenna to ask him to file suit to overturn the law on several grounds.

Rachael Paschal Osborn, of the Sierra Club, said one concern is that it guarantees water rights that aren’t being used, thus allowing several water systems, including Spokane’s, to expand greatly without conserving.

“If we’re using this much water, it’s going to show up somewhere, and the place it shows up missing is the Spokane River,” Paschal Osborn said.

Water purveyors say they need those rights to support growing populations. Further, they say, the law encourages conservation efforts.

“As those regions grow, we need to serve those areas,” said Brad Blegen, Spokane’s water department director. The law “protects our water rights. It doesn’t give us carte blanche water rights.”

There are about 20 water purveyors in Spokane County.

The biggest is the city of Spokane, which serves 211,000 people, 7,000 of whom live outside city limits. The system pumps an average of 61 million gallons a day from the aquifer but has the rights to pump about twice as much on average, Blegen said.

On a peak day, Spokane has the rights to pump 348 million gallons a day.

Paschal Osborn said that’s concerning because peak days happen in late summer when the river already is low, which makes life tougher on fish.

Blegen said the Sierra Club is using “gloom and doom” scenarios and that the city never will pump 348 million gallons in a day. The most the city has pumped in a day was 185 million gallons, and that was in the 1980s, Blegen said.

The flow of the Spokane River at Monroe Street has fallen significantly in the past 50 years. Paschal Osborn said usage from municipal systems likely plays a part in that decline.

By increasing conservation efforts, many areas have been able to increase population without using more water, she said.

“It can be done,” Paschal Osborn said. “Water is not a limitation on growth.”

Blegen said he agrees that saving water is essential to the aquifer.

“Even though we have the right on paper, we know that we only have so much,” Blegen said.