Yelm’s City Council June 23rd Study Session Minutes caught my eye where they state,
“Mayor Harding also met with Representatives Campbell, Becker & McCune and Congressman Adam Smith about the water issue and plan to meet with Dept. of Ecology [DOE].”

Given the City of Yelm will not be forthcoming without a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA), for which I will then be written-up in the newspaper for being number one in 2010 FOIA requests now that Ed Wiltsie has passed, I went directly to Rep. Campbell to request the purpose of this meeting.

Campbell reported,
“The meeting I went to was not with Adam Smith but Becker and McCune’s aide. The topic was DOE handling of the McMonagele (sic) water right transfer. The purpose of the legislative delegations presence was to promote a meeting with the Governor to discuss the problem directly.”

For those of you not aware, Mayor Harding & the Yelm City Council seized a citizen’s water rights last year.

Ed. Note: Is the City of Yelm not getting their way in their McMonigle Water Rights SEIZURE & enlisting the aid of State Legislators to go to DOE for the Governor for assistance, after spending what the city reports as hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills? HMMM!
The great thing about our Legislators is they represent ALL constituents’ requests, whether any individual or the cities in their district.

Further, recent news reports show some locations in southern Oregon have no water unless they drill deeper wells:
“Klamath Basin groundwater levels at historic lows”
“…that the heavy use of groundwater to supplement surface irrigation supplies is depleting wells,” from KDRV-TV.

Similarly, the City of Yelm has spent over 2/3 of a million for a test well to drill deeper for water here, for which the city has a bond.