For the second time in less than a year, the Swinomish Tribal Community is asking the Department of Ecology to investigate and correct what the tribe perceives to be illegal irrigation practices in the Skagit delta.

The tribe conducted a survey of irrigation practices in the Skagit delta last year, making observations from public right of ways. The tribe’s unverified conclusion was that almost half of the observed irrigation in the delta in July and August appeared to be taking place without a water-right permit.

These purportedly illegal water uses are taking stream flows away from salmon, the tribe said in a June 4 letter to Ecology that included the results of the survey. Area tribes have a treaty right to harvest half the salmon that return to the Skagit and Samish rivers to spawn.

“The Swinomish tribe is very concerned that illegal use of water for irrigation purposes in the Skagit and Samish river watersheds will continue to harm fisheries resources,” tribal Environmental Policy Manager Larry Wasserman wrote.

The letter went on to ask Ecology to conduct its own investigation of irrigation practices near the lower Skagit and to stop any unauthorized water use.

In a response e-mail to Ecology, sent June 30, Mike Rundlett of the Western Washington Agricultural Association said the tribe’s survey exaggerated the extent of illegal irrigation in the lower valley.

“There is always a certain amount of noncompliance,” but most of the so-called illegal cases cited by the tribe are in fact allowed, Rundlett wrote. Farmers in many cases are using water from a public water system such as the Skagit Public Utility District, or are drawing water from drainage district ditches. The Agricultural Association’s position is that use of water from drainage district ditches does not require a water right.

The tribe disagrees. In August 2008, Wasserman sent another complaint letter to Ecology, pointing out a “check dam” in a ditch at Calhoun and Bradshaw roads that a drainage district had installed, apparently to collect irrigation water. The letter said the tribe could find no evidence of a water right associated with the water collected behind the small dam.

These two volleys against water use by farmers have raised the ire of the farming community.

“At best, the agricultural community finds his (Wasserman’s) attitude toward delta farmers mean-spirited and counterproductive,” Rundlett wrote in his e-mail to Ecology.

In a prepared statement to the Skagit Valley Herald, the tribe said its complaint letters aren’t intended to undermine farming.

“This request is not at all directed toward hindering farming but rather is intended to ensure the continued existence of adequate instream flows for fish,” the statement said.

Ecology has been meeting with the Agricultural Association to find a way to bring all farmers into compliance, said Andy Dunn, an Ecology water resources program manager.

Skagit farmers often share water rights or move them from property to property as part of a large-scale crop rotation system. Area farmers are willing to exchange ground without a contract. But they need to submit an application to Ecology to move a water right, Dunn said.

Ecology is not about to investigate water practices by delta farmers until the Swinomish tribe’s concern about the use of drainage-district water for irrigation is resolved, Dunn said. The Agricultural Association sent Ecology a legal opinion in response to Wasserman’s August 2008 letter, saying the diversion of ditch water for irrigation doesn’t require a water right.

The state is close to a decision on how to interpret water-right law with respect to withdrawals from drainage-district ditches, Dunn said.

As for the tribe’s more recent letter, with its tally of illegal irrigation practices in the delta, Dunn said the agency could not yet comment on its validity.

“Ecology staff haven’t had an opportunity to do an independent follow-up investigation,” Dunn said.

The tribe’s prepared statement said Ecology has ignored the concerns expressed in Wasserman’s letters.

“The Swinomish Tribe has long believed that before Ecology permits additional out-of-stream water uses that reduce flows even more, the Department should investigate, identify and eliminate unlawful uses of water,” the statement said.

Rundlett said he would like the tribe to work more cooperatively with other parties to resolve water-use problems.

“We believe that protecting instream flow needs (for fish) ... and preserving the interests of Skagit farming will only be achieved by working together,” Rundlett’s e-mail to Ecology said.

Rundlett said the solution to the noncompliance that does exist among farmers would be to allow water rights to be exchanged without the “administrative paperwork mess” that Ecology’s change applications require.

“Transporting water might be a violation of the water law,” Rundlett said in an interview. “That’s the core problem. We need more mobility to be able to move that water around to where the crops are grown. The water has a permit behind it.”

Dunn said one proposal under consideration that would streamline water-right changes would be to create a local Board of Joint Control to manage multiple water rights in the farming community.

If such a board is to work, it’s going to require buy-in from all the affected farmers, Dunn said.

“It’s definitely worth exploring. That’s why they’re looking at it,” he said.

• Ralph Schwartz can be reached at 360-416-2138 or .