Norman Semanko: Practicing Water Law in the Pacific Northwest
Norman Semanko brings more than 30 years of experience with water resources and regulatory issues to his work as the water law practice group leader in the Pacific Northwest Region for Parsons Behle & Latimer. Irrigation Leader spoke with him about his work representing irrigation districts and canal companies in the complex practice of modern […]
Volume 13 Issue 5 May
Putting Legal Experience to Work for Washington Farmers By Kris Polly For this month’s cover story, we speak with Norman Semanko, who brings more than 30 years of experience with water resources and regulatory issues to his work as the water law practice group leader in the Pacific Northwest Region for Parsons Behle & […]
Volume 13 Issue 4 April
Bringing Experience and Understanding to the Legal Field By Kris Polly The success and flourishing of an irrigation district depend on many things—weather, funding, upkeep, modernization, and planning, for instance—but perhaps no factor counts as much as does a good manager. A manager must know their district’s distinctive characteristics and challenges, their employees, and […]
Volume 13 Issue 3 March
Bringing Experience and Understanding to the Legal Field By Kris Polly While this magazine often focuses on central Washington, east of the Cascades, there is also important irrigated agriculture to the west. This month, we speak with Jenna Friebel, the executive director of the Skagit County Drainage and Irrigation Districts Consortium, about how her […]
Volume 13 Issue 2 February
Bringing Experience and Understanding to the Legal Field By Kris Polly Anna Franz is a Moses Lake–based attorney with a family-farm background and long experience in water law and municipal law, including significant work with irrigation district clients and work as a young attorney with the great Richard Lemargie. In our cover story, she […]
Futurewise: Enabling Development While Conserving Agricultural Land and Water
Washington State’s population is growing, and a significant part of that growth is occurring in exurban areas where it threatens agricultural land and animal habitats. Futurewise is a Washington State–based organization that focuses on enabling sustainable community development while also protecting the state’s land and water resources. It advocates for long-term development plans and smart […]
Alex McGregor: An Advocate for Irrigated Ag Informed by 140 Years of Family History
Alex McGregor’s family has been involved in agriculture in the inland Northwest for 140 years. That means that the McGregors have seen central Washington transformed from a dusty wasteland to one of the nation’s most productive farmlands. Meanwhile, they founded the McGregor Land and Livestock Company and the McGregor Company, which provides agronomic supplies and […]
Volume 13 Issue 1 January
Washington Agriculture: History and Future By Kris Polly Alex McGregor is the chairman of the McGregor Company, a multigenerational agronomic supply company that provides materials and experience to 2,000 farm families in the Northwest. He is a tireless advocate for Washington State’s irrigated agriculture as well as being a tremendous storyteller. I know you […]
Whooshh Innovations’ Proposal for Fish Passage on the Lower Snake River
Whooshh Innovations, based in Washington State, manufactures innovative fish passage structures that safely move migratory fish through tubes over dams in seconds, rather than the hours or days required by conventional fish ladders. In response to recent multibillion dollar proposals to breach four dams on the lower Snake River, Whooshh has countered with a $67 […]
Volume 12 Issue 10 Nov/Dec Washington State Edition
Aquifer Rescue in Odessa By Kris Polly Since 2011, the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District (ECBID) has played a major role in implementing the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project (OGWRP), an initiative to build out the Columbia Basin Project to its full dimensions and bring surface water to the Odessa subarea, where groundwater pumping has […]