This Basin farmer kept tapping a dwindling aquifer. The state slammed his faucet shut

A farmer and the land owners he rents from have been fined $618,000 after being accused of illegally taking groundwater from the declining Odessa aquifer.

Ron Fode of Moses Lake used water from the aquifer to irrigate land to raise crops valued at more than $1 million in the 2017 growing season, the state Department of Ecology said Tuesday.

Fode, and landowners Michael Schmidt and Randy and Michele Kiesz, have 30 days to appeal the fine to the Pollution Control Hearings Board.

Fode did not immediately respond to a message left on his phone Tuesday.

“These landowners willfully ignored the law and tapped into a vulnerable aquifer without a legal right to do so,” said Mary Verner, Ecology’s Water Resources program manager.

“This isn’t fair to other irrigators who follow the law or to local communities and rural landowners who depend on this groundwater for their drinking water,” she said.

The aquifer supplies growers in Franklin, Adams, Grant and Lincoln counties who hold water rights for unfinished portions of the Columbia Basin Project.

Water in the aquifer has been rapidly declining since 1980.

Landowners and farmers have drilled deeper wells to reach water supplies as the groundwater has dropped more than 200 feet.

Some have had to pump water from wells as deep as 2,400 feet, bringing up water that is hot and high in sodium, according to Ecology.

During a field inspection on May 3, an Ecology watermaster found that Fode was irrigating land without a water right.

The state department said it told Fode and the owners of some of the farmed property that Fode was illegally irrigating three parcels totaling 530 acres.

On June 26, the department ordered him to stop drawing groundwater for irrigation.

Through Oct. 10, Ecology said it made more inspections of the fields Fode was farming and found he was still irrigating.

The fine includes:

• $309,000 for irrigating 335 acres of alfalfa and potatoes on land Fode rented;
• $206,000 for irrigating 130 acres of timothy hay on land Fode owned;
• and $103,000 for irrigating 65 acres of alfalfa on land Fode rented.

State law passed in 2004 prohibits using water from the dwindling Odessa aquifer for irrigation when water from the Columbia River is available through the irrigation district, Ecology said.

More than $200 million has been invested by local landowners and public agencies in recent years to ease the pressure on the declining aquifer by developing sustainable surface water supplies, according to the department.

This story was originally published December 19, 2017 at 6:10 PM with the headline "This Basin farmer kept tapping a dwindling aquifer. The state slammed his faucet shut."