THIS STATE AGENCY IS PUNISHING FARMERS AND RANCHERS
Washington’s Department of Ecology fined farmer Ron Fodé $618,000 because of its own internal office deadline. Forty miles away, it hit Wade and Teresa King with a $267,540 fine over stock ponds it spotted by satellite. This is the story of two devastated families in Washington State, both represented by Pacific Legal Foundation in their fight for justice.
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Fodé v. Department of Ecology
Now at the Washington Supreme Court
Ron Fodé’s case reached the Washington Supreme Court nearly ten years after his nightmare began.
On Valentine’s Day 2017, Ron Fodé spoke on the phone with the watermaster at the Department of Ecology. The powerful state agency—tasked with enforcing Washington’s water laws—denied Ron’s request to transfer water rights from one property to another. Ron could have filed a new application to transfer different water rights, but Ecology told him it was too late—the agency had an internal office deadline of February 15. The watermaster ordered Ron to stop watering his crops immediately.
Ecology’s made-up deadline was never properly adopted as a rule: no notice, no public comment, none of the process Washington law requires before an agency can bind the public. Under Washington’s Administrative Procedure Act, a policy that determines whether a farmer can pursue a compliance pathway must be adopted through rulemaking—not quietly imposed through an internal office memo.
And Washington law imposed another important limit on Ecology’s enforcement power. Before assessing penalties, Ecology was required to first attempt voluntary compliance by providing written technical assistance identifying one or more lawful ways for Ron to accomplish what he was trying to do. In other words, the Legislature required assistance before punishment.
But when Ron and the property owner repeatedly raised a potential lawful solution—a seasonal transfer of other water rights—Ecology did not help them pursue it. Instead, officials repeatedly invoked the February 15 deadline, telling them it was “too late,” that there were “no other options,” and that “we can’t do that.”
Then the agency told Ron to pay $618,000 in penalties for watering his crops.
“I remember not sleeping at night, scared to death that I was going to lose my whole family farm.”
— Ron Fodé
After the Washington Court of Appeals sided with Ecology, Ron Fodé filed a petition for review with the Washington Supreme Court. The court agreed to hear his case and Pacific Legal Foundation stepped in to represent him free of charge.
Read more about the Fodé case →
King v. State of Washington
A satellite photo. A quarter-million-dollar fine. No jury.
The King family has ranched the dry country along the Grand Coulee since the 1950s. Out here, seven to ten inches of rain falls in a year, and cattle drink from stock ponds the family digs and maintains.
In 2023, the Department of Ecology decided the ranch’s stock ponds were protected wetlands after looking at a satellite photo—then the agency fined Wade and Teresa King $267,540 and ordered the couple to “restore” the ponds: a ten-year project projected to cost $3.7 million.
“How can you restore non-wetlands into wetlands?”
— Wade King
The Kings never had a chance to defend themselves before a jury of their peers. The Department of Ecology issues binding orders before it has even finished investigating, and the only way to challenge an order is to seek review from the Pollution Control Hearings Board—three members appointed by the same governor who appoints Ecology’s director. No real chance at justice, even with a quarter of a million dollars and a multigenerational ranch on the line.
Both the Washington Constitution and United States Constitution protect the right to a jury trial. Washington’s promise is simple. The right to a jury “shall remain inviolate,” meaning no one can take it away. That includes cases with significant civil penalties, like the Kings’ case.
The U.S. Constitution’s promise is in the Seventh Amendment, which explicitly guarantees a jury in civil cases. The Bill of Rights was originally written to apply only to the federal government, however, not the states. Over the past century, the Supreme Court has extended almost all of the Bill of Rights to the states one by one, from free speech to protection against excessive fines. The right to a civil jury is one of the few it has never extended—but if the Kings manage to bring their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, that could finally change.
PLF is now fighting in court for the Kings’ right to a jury trial.
Read more about the King case →
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