Ria Burns, apparently the manager for the state’s Department of Ecology’s water resources, including the Skagit River, would do well to take some classes on hydraulics. The only way to harm fish by taking water from the Skagit for irrigation would be if it were taken from above the spawning grounds. From Concrete on down, if every farm along the way had irrigation pumps and all were pumping, they could not reduce the river level at the lower end enough to measure, especially with variants such as rain, wind and tides. At the worst it might increase the flow rate in places.

Prior to the...