Deer Park farmer says he won’t pay irrigation fines levied by Department of Ecology

DEER PARK – A Spokane County farmer is facing $100,000 in fines from state regulators who allege he repeatedly irrigated 69 acres of hayfield at his family’s Wild Rose Prairie property without authorization.

Farmer Robert H. Greiff told The Spokesman-Review he’s never spoken to the Department of Ecology and has no intention of paying fines or shutting off his irrigation system.

Greiff has continued pumping water from Wethey Creek this summer despite mailed warnings, a cease-and-desist order and other unpaid penalties delivered by Ecology.

The department has had a difficult time getting in touch with Greiff since 2019, Water Resources Section Manager Jaime Short said. When Ecology issued a press release about the fines on Thursday, The Spokesman-Review called the 85-year-old Greiff and arranged an interview at his family’s farm north of Spokane.

Greiff acknowledged receiving occasional mail from the state and the fine amount, but promptly ignored it.

“I return them to the sender,” Greiff said of the letters.

Dragoon Creek, Wethey Creek and other streams in the Little Spokane River watershed have been closed to new water rights because of limited water since 1976.

Short called the repeated violations “unfair” to other legal water users who were required to stop irrigating to protect the Little Spokane River and wildlife habitat.

Greiff says Ecology has sent police officers and the sheriff to deliver notices to him. He said the state will have to drag him to court before he stops irrigating. Greiff doesn’t have a lawyer and doesn’t plan on getting one.

“The water runs down the creek. We don’t steal it from anyone. And whatever we don’t use goes into the aquifer and to the river,” Greiff said.

His family has been farming in the area since 1939. The current farm includes two fields – 80 acres each – where the Greiffs grow alfalfa and grain.

Half of the farm, he said, has water rights, and he uses a well and pump to irrigate. But Greiff does not have the same rights to draw water for the other half of his property, which includes his house, a farming museum, outbuildings and a 69-acre hayfield.

“He has a few water rights that cover portions of the field that’s north of Ridgeway Road,” Short said. “Our penalty is specific for the 69 acres south of Ridgeway Road. There is no water rights associated with that parcel.”

Illegal irrigation on Greiff’s property has been an issue for more than six years, Short said, and resulted in $21,000 in penalties for Greiff last year. In total, Greiff owes the department $121,000 in fines. A lien – a secured interest against a debtor – has been filed against Grieff’s property by Ecology. Greiff has 30 days to pay the fine or appeal the decision to the Pollution Control Hearings Board, Short said.

Greiff’s farmland is located near the North Spokane Farm Museum in Deer Park. Part of it sits just past the museum, which Greiff built himself. The other farmland he owns is across the street from the museum, where Wethey Creek runs.

Greiff said he and his father began farming the land in question in 1952.

Dressed in a grey shirt, black suspenders and black slacks dusted in soil, Greiff still looks like a farmer – although now his hands tremble and his stamina isn’t what it used to be. He still drives a tractor, although other folks he employs do most of the intensive labor.

“It’s ridiculous to say we can’t water here, and I don’t care,” said.

Short said the department has a program that would allow Greiff to seasonally move his water rights from one field to another. If he doesn’t utilize that program, Greiff would have to find water rights another way.