VANCOUVER, Wash. — The Washington Department of Ecology has ordered a 151-year-old Clark County farm without a water right to stop irrigating or risk fines of up to $5,000 a day.

Ecology issued the order Sept. 14 to Bi-Zi Farms owner Bill Zimmerman. The order limits the 100-acre berry and vegetable farm to 5,000 gallons a day, the same cap as a household with a domestic well.

The farm can withdraw 915,000 gallons from its well between April 1 and Sept. 30, according to Ecology. The farm used more than 22 million gallons in 2022 during the irrigation season.

Zimmerman said Wednesday that on a daily ration of 5,000 gallons he would have to give up growing the vegetables he sells at the farm’s roadside store on the outskirts of Vancouver.

“We might be able to keep the berries alive and that’s about it,” he said.

Zimmerman and Ecology have been locked in a long-running battle over water. Zimmerman applied for a water right in 2009, but Ecology isn’t issuing any new water rights in the fast-growing area.

Buying an existing water right or hooking to a public utility district’s waterline and buying its water would be extremely expensive, Zimmerman said.

If the farm does find a water right to buy, Ecology will have to find that Zimmerman’s use of the water won’t impair other water rights, including minimum flows in nearby creeks. 

The farm can’t acquire water rights that have been relinquished for non-use. Relinquished water rights revert to the state. A Clark County legislator in 2022 proposed making relinquished water rights available to family farms, but the bill never received a hearing.

Ecology suggested Zimmerman capture rainwater running off rooftops. The farm, however, lacks any large barns. “It’s a joke,” Zimmerman said of the suggestion.

“Am I frustrated? Yes. Am I depressed? Yes,” he said.

Ecology spokesmen have repeatedly said the department does not want to see Zimmerman’s farm go under, but that it is enforcing state water law.

Ecology advised Zimmerman in 2021 to install a meter and not withdraw more than 5,000 gallons a day. Ecology checked meter records last June and calculated the farm was over its limit by more than 2 million gallons.

The farm exceeded the limit to save seeds and transplanted plants, Zimmerman said.

“We ended up using more than we anticipated,” he said. “We still did just a fraction of the irrigating that we’ve done in the past.”

The farm didn’t plant corn and cut back on other water-intensive crops, he said. “We put in a crop of hay, but, gee, that doesn’t pay the bills.”

The farm lost most of the vegetables it did plant and has had to buy produce from other growers for its store, he said. The farm contracted with a pumpkin farmer so it can have, as usual, a pumpkin patch.

Zimmerman said he hopes the Legislature will reconsider and change the law on relinquished water rights.

“If not, I don’t know where we’re at,” he said.

“We could make a couple of phone calls and sell this property for a subdivision in a heartbeat,” Zimmerman said. He said he hasn’t because “I love farming.”