(EVERSON, Wash.) The Washington State Department of Health is proposing a new policy for wells that could ultimately leave many farmworkers without access to the affordable on-farm housing they’ve depended on for decades.
The proposed regulations target shared wells, which housing for farmworkers often relies on. Statewide the change could affect as many as 200,000 homes.
“Making it harder for farms to provide or add additional desperately-needed affordable housing for farmworkers is absolutely the wrong direction for state policy right now,” said Ben Tindall, Save Family Farming Executive Director.
The Department of Health’s new recommendations would force farms and anyone with what the state wants to classify as a potential “Public Water System” to follow a costly, complicated, and unnecessary approval process that would ultimately make affordable farmworker housing impossible for many farms to provide. The proposal would also require farms found to be exempt from the policy to have to re-apply for that exemption every 5 years.
Historically, the strict engineering, permitting and yearly maintenance costs were only required for municipal systems and shared wells serving over 25 people or several residential connections. Adding small shared wells into the expensive, strict requirements will harm farmworkers and many other rural residents.
“Has the Department of Health considered what these new recommendations would mean for thousands of farmworkers who rely on farm-provided affordable housing?” asked Tindall. “There are significant questions about whether the department even has the legal or legislative authority to make these kinds of sweeping changes.”