A combine at work in wheat fields in the Walla Walla region, during 2018. (Washington State Department of Agriculture)
The state Department of Health is considering an update to how it exempts small farms from some drinking water requirements.
The department says it’s a simple fix to outdated and inaccurate language to what’s known as the “same farm exemption,” but farmers say the changes could be costly and burdensome – especially for farms with onsite housing for employees.
Under a 1995 state law, water systems with four or fewer connections, serving residences on the same farm and providing water to fewer than 25 people a day are excluded from some regulatory requirements that larger public water systems face.
The updated language would require those exempt farms to reapply every five years for the exemption. If at any point, the farms didn’t qualify, the Department of Health would have the authority to take away the exemption.
Jay Gordon, at the Washington State Dairy Federation, said proving that they fit the requirements every year could be expensive, unnecessary and go against what the Legislature intended when setting up the exemption in state law.