July 2026 Update
Connecting the Dots: What’s Up with Water for Whatcom?
Our News update in June briefly stated at the end: May has been a busy month for us! – and we offered a few examples. Well, June was even more so, and July promises the same trend. This is an exciting time!
Full disclosure: we can describe many of the dots, but connecting them coherently is beyond the limits of one update. In fact we are still working out the details ourselves, which is what consumes much of our attention. But we trust outlining these factors will help you follow future updates as we go into more detail.
So consider:
Press Release
We released our first press release, on June 16th, and published it on our website here the next day. In that page’s sidebar, you will see links for two articles about us that quickly followed, in the Bellingham Herald and Cascadia Daily News (CDN).
Bellingham Herald
Bellingham Herald Feature Reporter: Robert Mittendorf. June 17, 2026 "A group of environmental, farming, business and governmental interests have formed an organization focused on solving the Nooksack River basin’s boom-and-bust cycle[...]
Cascadia Daily News
Cascadia Daily News Feature Reporter: Isaac Stone Simonelli June 17, 2026 "The solutions to Whatcom County’s deluge of water during the winter and increasingly severe droughts in the summer are complex[...]
Washington’s Water Future
Washington’s Water Future (WWF): on May 6th, Governor Ferguson announced this new initiative, with Ecology’s Casey Sixkiller speaking to the details for 6 county watersheds including the Nooksack. Read about it in the Washington State Standard; and in the Whatcom Family Farmers press release here. This is the major factor drawing our attention now, with an Ecology-led ‘Roundtable’ for the Nooksack Basin expected here in August. The Ecology timetable is explicitly intended to produce specific proposals for funding in each watershed in time for the next Legislative session in January.
Likkel – Hirst Op-Ed
Likkel-Hirst Op-Ed: many of you will remember it was their joint Op-Eds in 2024/25 that helped launch this Water for Whatcom effort. In their latest CDN Op-Ed published here June 14th, Fred & Eric expressed their own opinions about possible implications of the state’s WWF initiative. While they describe one possible approach, it is only one of several we are considering.
Elenbaas Amendments
This is an older story, at Salish Current here, which is presently relevant: in March County Council member Ben Elenbaas proposed amendments to the new County Comprehensive Plan to encourage collaborative discussions to address water management issues. These amendments were passed with minor Amendments in April, and Council’s broad consensus support encourages our central interest this summer.
Yakima Integrated Plan
Many of you may have learned more about this on our YBIP information page here; it’s a success story we have followed now for some time. While it is also often mentioned in references above, it too is only one of several approaches demonstrated around the state (which together also helped inform WWF).
Floodplain Integrated Plan
FLIP is the County’s Floodplain Integrated Planning program. Read their own story here; we have one member who participates. This winter during flood response we observed that FLIP ‘solutions’ discussions sometimes overlapped with broader issues of water supply. There has been hopeful recognition of that common cause recently in the FLIP network – with possible opportunities this summer to collaborate further.
Common Waters
In our June update we also mentioned this May 2nd event at Lummi Nation, where eight of our members participated. You need explore only briefly from that site’s home page to learn that two of our members, Brad Rader & Rich Appel, hold key roles in that 3-year project’s beginning, and its continued success. Similarly, they are essential guides for us as well. In fact, between our two groups, increasing awareness of our shared values underpins much of our Water for Whatcom summer planning.