Okanogan County is now being asked to join state and federal agencies in a Memorandum of Agreement that would cut water rights for the 14 ditch companies by 25 percent. There is no scientific basis for the 25 percent reduction, and neither the state nor county has the authority to take away water rights without due process or compensation. The Washington Agriculture Legal Foundation believes water rights are protected under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and under the Washington State Constitution. The connection between water rights and the value and viability of a person' s private property is impossible to ignore. That becomes even more obvious when examining the condition of Methow Valley irrigation ditch company lands that have gone without water in 1999.
Water rights are constitutionally inseparable from the right of ownership of property.
So while the Methow Valley may seem an obscure place to the rest of Washington, the outcome of federal actions to deny water rights in faraway Okanogan County will have enormous social and economic implications for all residents of Washington. It's time we all wake up to what's happening. Contact Mike Poulson executive director of the Washington Agriculture Legal Foundation. 2596 Olympia, WA 98507.