 To submit an anouncment, e-mail it to us. Ecology Efforts May Spell Disaster For Methow Valley
By Pat Sahlin "What's wrong with this picture? Apparently, fish. The National Marine Fisheries Service has determined that water use from unimproved (or under-improved) ditches is possibly harming an effort to replenish the stock of Columbia River spring chinook and Columbia River bull trout, two species of fish which apparently have ceased making the long migration run into the far upper reaches of the valley and which were recently put on the endangered list. Long-time residents of the valley say that the fish have not migrated that far for nearly 50 years. But, until repairs are made to the ditches and new fish-protection screens are installed, the environmental agency says that water is being wasted through ground seepage and evaporation and that farmers could be guilty of illegally 'taking' of an endangered species, through their failure to provide adequate protection for the fish. In the meantime, permits for water use have been suspended and fields are drying up. Sun Mountain Lodge (see inside cover of 1999 WA State Travel Guide), a 4-star resort that is the valley's largest single employer and taxpayer , and the backbone of the local economy, is now faced with closure due to lack of available water to operate the facility. The ditch that normally feeds beautiful Patterson Lake below Sun Mtn and provides the water supply for the lodge is one that has been denied a permit, and without that input the level of the lake is dropping at an alarming rate. "The logical question is, can't the special screens be put in place, or existing ones repaired to meet the environmental demands? Well, not exactly. The volume of water currently in the streams and rivers is such that it makes repair work impossible. The level would have to drop considerably in order to accomplish the work. In the meantime the water races on past the frustrated valley residents whose entire future is at stake. It appears that the possible future of a species of fish that might be making the uphill climb into the Methow Valley is more important that the future of the 2,000 human residents of the valley. To make the picture even more bizarre, the town of Twisp, which sits just below Winthrop, has just been allocated a$2.5 million combination grant and low-interest loan from the WA State Dept. of Ecology in order to build a back-up or redundancy system for its wastewater treatment plant, in case its primary system should ever fail. Ecology Director Tom Fitzsimmons is quoted as saying 'We need to be aggressive about improving water quality in our rivers and lakes so our citizens have clean water for drinking and swimming, and also so fish can survive. Providing local communities with the funding to improve and protect water is one of our most important commitments.' Somehow the Ecology Department has overlooked the distinct possibility that, without access to that water in order to irrigate the fields, refill the drying lakes and the empty water taps of the resorts, there may not BE any citizens in the Methow Valley to worry about it." 
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