Skagit Public Utility District looks to extend water transfer program

The Skagit Public Utility District is looking into extending a program that allows it to provide water to agricultural users during the dry spring and summer months when the Skagit River is flowing at low levels.

Though agricultural users don't have access on their own to water for irrigation when the river is running low, the PUD does. And it can transfer its water rights to the agricultural users from May through October.

Prior to the start of the three-year pilot program in 2024, the PUD could only transfer its water rights to agricultural users during state-declared droughts.

It did so in 2015, 2019, 2021 and 2023.

Skagit Valley Farm CEO Tony Wisdom said that the water transfer program has been valuable to the agriculture community because it provides water at a critical time during the growing season.

Wisdom said the program is especially helpful to finish growing a crop that otherwise wouldn't survive.

"It's been very, very important and very, very valuable to the ag community in Skagit County in general, and it's been very helpful for Skagit Valley Farm as well," Wisdom said.

Drainage and Irrigation Improvement District 15, Consolidated Diking Improvement District 22 and Skagit Valley Farm have taken part in the pilot program.

Now as the pilot program enters its final year, the PUD is looking at possibilities to continue and improve the program in 2027, General Manager George Sidhu said.

No decisions have been made as to how a permanent program may operate, Sidhu said. Instead, PUD staff and its board of commissioners want to take the time find out what will work best.

"We're kind of stepping back a little bit and saying, ‘You know, this program has been successful each time we did it during the drought. This program was successful in this three-year pilot program.' So now it's kind of like, ‘OK, well, (let's) continue to make improvements,'" Sidhu said.

In the coming months, the PUD plans to discuss a permanent program at its board of commissioner meetings, and to hear from the community about what it would like to see from the program.

A stakeholder meeting is scheduled for the week of July 20 to allow for the community to provide feedback on the program. This meeting is particularly important in the process, Sidhu said.

"If we're going to develop another program, we really want feedback from the community on their view of how our water rights are being used," he said. "Previously, during the drought transfers and even during this pilot program, we tried to make better decisions every time, but we never took a really big step back and looked at a broader program where we talked to the stakeholders. So that's going to be a really important piece of our decision-making process this summer."

Sidhu encourages county residents to attend the stakeholder meeting, he said.

He noted that the PUD's primary focus is to serve customers, and he said that the water transfer program will not supersede that priority.

Because of this, he said the PUD is not in a rush and wants to make the program as efficient as it can be.

"The transfer program is not a revenue machine for us. We're not doing it because we need to raise more funds for other reasons. No, it runs alongside our primary operation, and it's only if we can make it work."

In 2026, each participant in the program has paid a $5,510 fee for access to the PUD's water rights and a $1,100 fee for any additional diversion points.

This gives the participants access to 300 acre-feet of water during the transfer period, and any withdrawals over that amount are billed at a rate of $14.89 per acre-foot.

Sidhu said that the program is about helping irrigators in Skagit County, which ultimately benefits all its residents.

"We look at the benefit to the community," he said. "We're not getting a lot in return other than it's our mission to serve our community and our customers, and if the water rights allow us to do that, then we're happy to do that."

Skagit County Drainage and Irrigation Districts Consortium Executive Director Jena Friebel said the program has been "tremendously successful" for the two districts that participate, and hopes the program will continue into 2027.

"I would like the program that we've developed with the PUD over the last three years to continue," Friebel said. "Ag irrigation water supply is a really, really important issue for our organization, for our farmers, for the districts that our organization represents. So finding a solution for ag water supplies is extremely important for our community, and this pilot program, it's a good first step in the right direction."

Wisdom said he hopes that in the future the program will allow participants to enter into long-term, multiyear transfer agreements as opposed to the one-year agreements allowed through the pilot program.

He said he's hopeful that multiyear agreements will come in 2027, which would assure the agriculture community that it will have the water it needs for years to come.

"Agriculture is a vital and integral part of the fabric of Skagit County for a majority of the community," Wisdom said. "It's a cultural heritage here in Skagit County. It's a big, big deal. So when the community is working together to help each other out to keep ag viable, it's a win for everybody, including the community - the entire community."

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