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Several mayors of Whatcom County’s smaller cities, along with farmers in the Nooksack River basin, are asking the state to address their concerns about recent weather-related disasters before moving forward with a lawsuit over water rights in the aquifer. But state Department of Ecology officials told The Bellingham Herald that decisions regarding water rights and measures to address extreme weather that’s related to climate change are separate issues and can be addressed at the same time. A meeting with the mayors is planned soon, an Ecology official said.

In a letter dated Jan. 28 and released in a statement Wednesday, Feb. 2, the mayors of Everson, Ferndale, Lynden, Nooksack and Sumas asked Ecology to delay an “adjudication” process aimed at deciding who has claim to water in the Nooksack River Basin, known officially as Water Resource Inventory Area 1. Instead, the mayors — members of the Northern Whatcom County Small Cities Caucus — want Ecology to focus on deadly record heat waves, drought and flooding that devastated the region last year.