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Title
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Whose Water is it Anyway?: The Adjudication of Water Rights in the Nooksack Watershed
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Description
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Western Washington University Honors College Senior Project by Emma Ledsham about water management of the Nooksack Watershed, agricultural and tribal water rights in Washington State, and adjudication proposed by Washington State Department of Ecology.
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Creator
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Emma Ledsham
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pages
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27
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Date
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2021
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Language
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en
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Publisher
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Western Washington University (WWU) Honors College Senior Projects
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Western CEDAR
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Abstract
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When the Washington State Department of Ecology (“Ecology”) announced in September 2020 that they were considering the Nooksack Watershed as a potential candidate for adjudication, the news was met with fury from some and joy from others. Adjudication when applied to water law is a process that bringstogether all of the water users in one watershed to determine their legal water rights through a court process (Water Resources Program, 2021, p. 1). Ecology had just finished the adjudication of water rights in the Yakima River Basin in May2019, a process that had taken a little over 40 years (Bedell, 2019, p. 1). The Washington State Legislature then directed Ecology to conduct a review of basins where water rights are uncertain and determine whether adjudication would be useful in those areas (McPherson & Adjudication Staff, 2020, p. 3). Ecology identified two watersheds as urgently needing adjudication, the Nooksack in Whatcom County and Lake Roosevelt and MiddleTributaries along the Columbia River (p. 15). In response to their recommendation that the Nooksack Watershed be adjudicated, critics in the area argued that the adjudication might take just as long as the Yakima River Basin adjudication and harm local farmers (Bierlink, 2020). Supporters argued that the adjudication process would clear up confusion around who is legally using water in the watershed and would ensure that enough water is left in the rivers for fish (Coe, 2021).