(The Center Square) – Facing $100,000 in fines, a Spokane County farmer now has 30 days to pay up or appeal after irrigating his property without permission as the state cuts access for dozens of others.
According to a news release, the Washington State Department of Ecology first took issue with Robert Greiff in 2019. The state typically requires water rights permits for anything outside of minor projects or when that water comes from a utility provider, especially for farms using surface and groundwater.
State law follows a “first-in-time, first-in-right” framework, meaning that Ecology prioritizes access for senior water right holders. Reporting by The Spokesman-Review recently found that Spokane just had its driest summer yet, which Ecology says led to the shutdown of water for nearly 160 rights holders.
“For years, we’ve seen repeated violations and a disregard for bringing this property into compliance,” Jamie Short, water resources section manager for Ecology’s Eastern Region, wrote in a news release.
According to state records, Greiff has several active rights dating back to 1949 for the North Spokane Farm Museum. He told The Center Square that his parents immigrated from overseas in 1907 before moving to the Deer Park area around 1916, slowly acquiring pieces of land to farm on there after.
Greiff and his father are both listed as rights holders on state records, but those privileges only allow the family to pull water from a specific source. He submitted additional applications in 2022, with the Spokane County Water Conservancy Board initially approving before it later withdrew support.
The board cited incomplete paperwork, overlapping water rights and irrigation without authorization.
Greiff told The Center Square that a road separates the portion of land Ecology fined him over from the rest of his property. He compared the situation to a person in need of water standing on the other side and asked whether one should give water to those who are thirsty or make them earn the right.
Ecology sent a cease-and-desist letter in June 2023, but Greiff continued to irrigate the land anyway.
“We’ve made multiple attempts to provide technical assistance and achieve voluntary compliance, yet illegal use continues,” Short argued on behalf of Ecology. “It’s unfair as other legal water users were required to stop irrigating to protect the Little Spokane River and its fish and wildlife habitat.”
The state first fined Greiff $6,000 last summer and $15,000 two months after the violations continued.
He didn’t pay the penalties, so the Washington State Office of the Attorney General, or AGO, has since obtained a judgment lien in Spokane County Superior Court. Essentially, Greiff can’t refinance or sell his property until he or another party pays off the lien; if neither happens, the state could force a sale.
“They can take the property over my dead body,” Greiff told The Center Square when asked if he worried about losing his farm.
The $100,000 fine that Ecology announced on Thursday is the latest action against the man trying to preserve his family’s multigenerational farm. This penalty is specifically for irrigating about 69 acres at Wild Rose Prairie, where Greiff’s property is located, without a permit from June 12 to July 25, 2025.
State law allows Ecology to levy civil penalties from $100 to $5,000 per day for water rights violations. Greiff said his family has been there over a century without issue until the past few years, but now his kids might not be inherit the farm that he and his parents spent decades working on.
According to the release, Greiff pumps water from a spring tributary of Dragoon Creek, which is a part of the Little Spokane River Watershed. The state stopped permitting new water permits there in 1976.
“Greiff has 30 days to pay the fine or appeal the decision to the Pollution Control Hearings Board,” according to the news release.
