Three honored for service to irrigation

Three people who have had huge and positive impacts on the “greening” of Eastern Washington have been honored by the Washington State Water Resources Association, which represents the state’s 100-plus irrigation districts. The awards were presented, one posthumously, at the the Association’s annual conference in Spokane December 4.

The Legacy Award went to Paul Lemargie, who died in 2004 at age 95. Lemargie’s posthumous award was for his decades of service benefitting the members of the Association, the federal Bureau of Reclamation and the state and nation as a whole through tireless efforts on behalf of the development and management of water resources. He is the only federal official ever to have received the Association’s Legacy Award. It was accepted by his son, Richard.

In the 1930s, Lemargie, an attorney, was appointed Solicitor for the U.S. Department of the Interior at Grand Coulee Dam, where he oversaw diverse legal issues associated with the massive construction project.

After serving in the Coast Guard during World War II, he resumed his pre-war job and in 1951 moved the Solicitor’s office to the Bureau of Reclamation office in Ephrata. As Solicitor, Lemagie was instrumental in Project development; he helped shape legal aspects of the Project that have thus far guided conversion of 680,000 acres from desert to productive farmland.

In 1968, he drafted contracts that transferred irrigation operations to irrigation districts and established a long-term relationship between the districts and the Bureau of Reclamation that is still in place today.

Realizing that changes in state law would be needed to facilitate the new arrangements, he dedicated himself to the State Association of Washington Irrigation Districts, forerunner to the current Association. He was instrumental in helping build it into a vibrant organization that could move issues and legislation for the benefit of its members, the Bureau and, ultimately, consumers and taxpayers. He retired in 1975 but remained active in the Association until 1985.

The Leadership Award went to Rick Smith of Wenatchee, who has served the Wenatchee Reclamation District for 35 years in a variety of jobs, including canal patrolman, superintendent and, for the past seven years, secretary/manager. The district’s gravity-powered system comprises 35 miles of open canals on both sides of the Columbia River.

Long active in watershed protection and planning, Smith has served on the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Board for 14 years, the past two as chairman. In 2013, the Board honored him with its Esther Stefaniw Memorial Award for his significant contributions to restoring salmon, steelhead and other at-risk species in the Upper Columbia and for his leadership in “ensuring effective expenditure of state and federal funds on river restoration.”

Smith has served on the Board of Directors of the Washington State Water Resources Association for a dozen years.

The Water Statesman Award to was presented to Tom Myrum for his 19 years as Executive Director of the Association and the past two years as President of the National Water Resources Association.

In presenting the award, Awards Committee Chair, Jim Trull, noted that change was necessary at the national level and praised Myrum for his leadership in getting the NWRA re-focused and re-energized.

Myrum grew up in Wyoming, earned his law degree at the University of Idaho in 1992 and went to work for Umatilla Basin (Ore.) irrigation districts until he was hired for the Association’s top job in October 1995.