Deadline looms for Whatcom County water users to document their rights
May 1 deadline for users to file a court claim about how much water they use. Those who don’t file risk losing access to legal water.
Water users in Whatcom County’s Nooksack Watershed have a May 1 deadline to file a court claim in Superior Court for their water rights as part of a process known as adjudication.
Using certified mail, 28,000 claim forms were sent to affected addresses and 22,000 were received and signed. So far, nearly 1,600 claim forms have been filed, said Jimmy Norris, spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Ecology.
Adjudication is a court process that brings all water users of a watershed into a court process that determines users legal water rights in the area. The Nooksack Watershed, known as Water Resource Inventory Area 1, comprises most of Whatcom County and small portions of Skagit County.
