Public safety: Watch your step!

“Abandoned Wells: A Hidden Danger” Ecology video now on-line

by Lynne Geller, Water Resources Program



Abandoned well hidden under piece of plywood
Every year, across the state, people and animals fall into abandoned water wells. These falls usually result in injury, and sometimes death. There are thousands of these wells across the state. Most are leftover from Washington’s agricultural days

Sequim-area residents enjoy a wealth of information on water conservation

By Dan Partridge, Communications Manager, Water Resources Program



Members of Future Farmers of America at Sequim High School prepare site for new water-efficient demonstration garden
Water conservation on the Olympic Peninsula is making a splash! People are learning about low water-use landscaping, including groundcovers that provide good alternatives to lawns, the “miracle of mulch” and much

Ecology's Dam Safety Office Gets High Marks

But report says state’s aging dams need continual attention and funding

by Lynne D. Geller, Water Resources Communication & Education

When was the last time the importance of well-maintained dams came up in dinner conversation? For most of us, maybe never! Like so much of our state’s infrastructure, the safety of our state’s dams is taken for granted — unless one fails.


So it’s good to

Voices For The Yakima Basin: "The Future We Want"

By Tim Hill, Office of Columbia River

We asked Michael Garrity of American Rivers and Trout Unlimited's Lisa Pelly to share their thoughts about the Yakima Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan (YBIP). Here's what they had to say:

The Yakima Basin Integrated Plan is a big deal. For farmers and river flows, certainly, ensuring water reliability as the climate warms and snowpack

Proper care of your water well can be a matter of life and death

by Lynne Geller, Outreach and Communications, Water Resources Program

An 83-year-old woman in Waterville, Washington did not have a very merry Christmas this past year: she fell into a well on Christmas Eve and sat in cold water for 20 minutes before she was rescued.

Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident. As this blog goes to press, Ecology has learned of two more well-related

Conversations about Washington's future — water for people, farms and fish

By Ted Sturdevant, Ecology Director

Washington's future quality of life depends upon its water future.

What kind of future that is – whether it’s marked by fighting over an increasingly limited resource or whether it spurs creative solutions that meet multiple needs – depends upon how we approach the problem.

My latest Conversations on Washington's Future message offers an insider’s view of

Court decision is big gain for groundwater protection

Dan Partridge, communications manager, Water Resources Program


Ecology's Maia BellonThe state Supreme Court has reaffirmed local governments’ obligations to ensure legal groundwater availability when making land use decisions.

In Kittitas County vs. EWGHMB, the court on July 28, 2011, upheld a decision of the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board that Kittitas County violated

Abandoned water wells can be life-threatening

by Lynne Geller, Outreach and Communications, Water Resources ProgramThe sad loss of two dogs who died recently after falling into an abandoned well on Vashon Island again brings to light the importance of properly filling in wells no longer in use.Old abandoned water wells are fairly common in Washington State. For example, there are estimated to be thousands of abandoned wells in King County