Today Ecology filed a complaint naming Dan Class, owner of Class Development in Woodland, Wash., along with 11 other individuals and a bank for not having a water-right permit for Columbia Crest Estates, a housing development under construction in Cowlitz County. If the development continues without a water right, the homes could be withdrawing up to 60,000 gallons of water per day. Anybody else wanting that much water would need a water-right permit. We hope the court will agree that the exemption was intended for individual homes and small developments - not large housing developments. Phillips also said Ecology is concerned that such a significant withdrawal of ground water may further harm salmon, trout and steelhead in the lower Columbia River.
Canyon Creek runs through the proposed development.
The creek flows into the lower Columbia, which has several species of fish, whose survival is threatened and populations are decreasing. In the Yakima case, the developers joined with Ecology to get an answer from the court.