Thurston County, WA Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

010 says nuisance lawsuits encourage and may even force the premature removal of lands from agricultural uses and timber production, and the county wants to keep working land in production. 020(1) does the actual legal work: any agricultural activity on farmland, or any forest practice, that is consistent with good agricultural and forest practices and that was established before the neighboring nonagricultural or nonforestry use moved in, is presumed reasonable and is not a nuisance, unless the activity has a substantial adverse effect on public health and safety, including impacts to groundwater supplies.

020(2) adds a second presumption: an agricultural or forestry operation that follows all applicable laws and rules is presumed to be good practice that does not adversely affect public health and safety. Together the two presumptions put the burden on a neighbor who sues a farm or timber operation to show either that the operation was not established first, does not follow good practice, or causes a substantial health-and-safety impact, rather than making the farmer prove the operation is harmless. 020(3) is a deliberate limit on how far the protection goes: it does not strip any private individual or government agency of its underlying authority to bring a public nuisance action, so the ordinance shifts the presumption rather than closing the courthouse door.