State Ecology fines North Whatcom County berry farm for illegal use of water
Operators of a blueberry farm between Lynden and Sumas in northern Whatcom County have been fined for the second time in two years for “unpermitted” water use.
RAN General Partnership and its owner, Rick Alamwala, were fined $20,000 for illegally irrigating about 40 acres of crops during the 2024 season, state Department of Ecology spokesman Jimmy Norris said in a statement Thursday.
Alamwala was fined $12,000 in 2023 for the same violations, Norris said.
“Ecology staff informed Alamwala that there were no water rights associated with the property. Despite attempts by Ecology staff to provide technical assistance, Alamwala ignored Ecology’s repeated attempts to gain voluntary compliance, culminating in Ecology’s issuance of a cease-and-desist order in July 2022,” Norris said in the statement.
Norris told The Bellingham Herald in an email that it’s unclear where the water that Alamwala is using originates, or whether it comes from a well or a nearby creek.
“It is groundwater and/or an unnamed tributary to Johnson Creek. One of the reasons people need to apply for a water right is so we can be sure where water comes from and how it might affect other water users or the environment,” Norris said.
Water rights in the Nooksack River basin are the focus of a lawsuit where a judge will decide who has the right to water in Whatcom County, which is part of Water Resource Inventory Area 1.
Norris said that the Nooksack River basin has had an “in-stream flow rule” since 1985, and junior water-rights holders are sometimes limited in how much water they can use in the summer months.
“Alamwala’s continued illegal water use further impairs low summer stream flows and takes water away from other legal water users. An in-stream flow rule is essentially a water right for the river and establishes minimum amounts of water that must be in the stream before water users can divert it,” Norris said.
This story was originally published October 21, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
