A proposal in the Washington state Legislature to relocate the Bob Oke Game Farm in Centralia will stay alive for at least a couple more weeks after narrowly avoiding being left behind in committee.
The bill — introduced by state Reps. Peter Abbarno, R-Chehalis, and Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama — advanced on the last day for bills to be heard and advanced by their original legislative committees on Wednesday.
It faced long odds to move forward after being introduced weeks into the session. It was approved by its original committee uncommonly quickly and was sent to the next committee on the same day it received its first public hearing.
House Bill 2668 appeared in front of the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources on Wednesday morning.
It comes in direct response to nitrate contamination detected in the Centralia aquifer, which passes, at least in part, underneath the Bob Oke Game Farm. The facility is managed by the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), which raises thousands of pheasants on the land each year.
According to the City of Centralia, studies last spring found that manure from the game farm was a significant contributor to dangerous levels of nitrates in local drinking water in the Fords Prairie area surrounding the facility.
The bill approved by the committee was a substitute version of the original bill. It mandates the start of a relocation process, requiring WDFW to submit a list of possible new locations to lawmakers by the end of the year. It also avoids asking for immediate funding as the state is facing a prolonged budget crisis.
Instead of requiring the department to use existing funds, it requires WDFW to seek funding in the state's 2027-2029 capital budget to pay for pre-design and analysis of proposed new locations and efforts to restore and improve the current site of the game farm, including continued water and nitrate monitoring.
Once a location is selected, the bill requires the department to continue requesting capital budget funding until relocation is complete. The timeline for relocation will depend on funding availability. It appears from the language of the bill that relocation would happen at the earliest toward the end of the next budget biennium in 2029, but could extend beyond that.
The original version of the bill introduced last week stipulated a quicker timeline but also came with a price tag. Testimony from Orcutt at the public hearing hinted that that version was unlikely to advance as he discussed working closely with WDFW and legislative staff in recent days to bring down the expected costs included in the bill's fiscal note.
“It's going to take money to do and it's going to take time, and I wish the timelines in the bill could be a lot faster, but I am somewhat of a realist as well and recognize it takes time,” Orcutt said. “That's why I think it's so important that we start this process now and not wait another year.”
After Orcutt's testimony on the bill, many local officials from the Centralia area testified in person or over Zoom during the hearing, including local officials representing both the City of Centralia and Lewis County.
All but three of those who testified Wednesday also spoke earlier in the session on another bill — House Bill 2343 — that seeks to up the standards for monitoring and guarding against negative impacts to groundwater and soil from state-operated game farms. The standards would be raised to match those already set for private livestock farms in the state.
Officials gave similar testimony on the previous bill but with added emphasis on the impact that the game farm could have on the Centralia community over the next 20 years if not relocated. Speakers included Lewis County Commissioner Sean Swope, Lewis County Public Health and Social Services Director Meja Handlen, Centralia Mayor Norm Chapman, Centralia Public Works Director Andy Oien and others.
Notably, Centralia City Manager Michael Thomas joined the group this week, testifying alongside Oien and urging the Legislature to support relocation as soon as possible. He stressed to lawmakers the city's concerns that nitrates could impact the city's water and added that a geohydrologist stated the nitrates could take as long as 20 years to filter out of the groundwater naturally after contamination has been halted.
“Even if we get this work done now, we’re still looking at a decade or more of contamination,” Thomas said. “Our main concern for getting this thing moved now so we can start the flush out process naturally and protect our pumping stations.”
A member of the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, 2025-26 Miss Chehalis Madoleen Goddard, also spoke to the lawmakers. She urged them to support relocating the game farm and to consider the impacts to future generations if it is not moved.
“Tribal teachings tell us to think about the seventh generation,” Goddard said. “Groundwater contamination can last decades, and once an aquifer is damaged, it is very difficult to restore … Continuing operations that place this water source at risk goes against our shared responsibility as caretakers of the land.”
For previous reporting, visit https://tinyurl.com/4vfxj8p9.
