Sustaining Agriculture while Restoring Rivers & Streams

By Lisa Pelly, F&E Board Member

The Washington Water Acquisition Program is a voluntary program supporting innovative strategies to improve instream flows in Washington. Water Right holders can participate by using a number of market-based acquisition tools or participate in the state’s Irrigation Efficiencies program, administered by the Washington Conservation Commission and their local conservation district. Water Rights are put into the state trust water rights program, created by the Legislature, as a way to protect all or a portion of an existing right back to the state to hold in trust either permanently or temporarily.

Water Acquisitions are all voluntary transactions and are accomplished by working with the agricultural community, including individual farmers, irrigation districts and canal companies.  Other partners include Conservation Districts, Bonneville Power Administration, tribes, land trusts, state, county and federal agencies ensuring projects have economic, environmental and social benefits for communities across Washington. 

A number of market-based opportunities for water right owners are available like water right leasing and purchasing; but some water right owners are taking advantage of upgrading their irrigation systems, source water substitution such as moving from surface withdrawals to wells, dry-year leases, water banks and split-season leases. A split-season lease allows for a portion of a water right to be used for irrigation during a portion of the irrigation season, leaving the remaining portion for instream use during critical periods for fish and wildlife. A dry-year lease option provides the opportunity to lease a water right during only dry years.

Healthy rivers and streams are necessary to support local community values, which, in addition to ranching and agriculture, include sustainable fisheries for tribal members, commercial and sports fishers and recreation. Increasing stream flow is critical for the recovery of species listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act and improving water quality in rivers and streams listed as water quality impaired under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. 

Healthy agriculture and healthy streams are critical to keeping Washington a place where we all want to live. Providing market-based solutions to help farmers maintain and improve the stewardship of their land and farm is key to what Farming and the Environment’s vision is all about.

Lisa Pelly, a Farming and the Environment Board member and Executive Director for Washington Rivers Conservancy, a non-profit organization working with the Water Acquisition Program statewide to create and implement programs in Washington State that provides effective tools for putting water instream while supporting local economies.