Bills designed to help address municipal water supply issues come forward

Washington State needs a balanced, rational mitigation approach for groundwater permitting that would protect instream flows during critical flow periods and provide overall net ecological gains. The Supreme Court’s 2015 Foster decision imposed a straitjacket on the Department of Ecology’s (Ecology) water right permitting authority. Following Foster, Ecology has refused to issue new groundwater rights if there would be even one molecule of impact to surface waters protected under Ecology’s instream flow rules.

The Joint Legislative Task Force on Water Resource Mitigation met between 2018 and 2021 and produced a series of recommendations. Many of these recommendations are included in SB 5517 by Sen. Judy Warnick (R–Moses Lake). Although the proposal stalled last session, it advanced out of committee the first week of this year’s session.

According to AWC surveys and those of partner organizations that operate water utilities, approximately 70 municipal water providers will need additional water supply within the next 10 years. Under Ecology’s interpretation of the 2003 Municipal Water Law and Foster decision, it is likely that certain areas of the state will lack the water supply necessary for future needs. Meanwhile, the State is enabling exempt well use and rural growth using the mitigation standard prohibited in Foster.

In addition to SB 5517, House Democratic Majority Leader Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D–Seattle) has introduced a different approach to addressing these challenging issues, HB 2105. The biggest difference between the two approaches is that HB 2105 explicitly precludes out of kind mitigation as a tool to mitigate for potential impacts.

We appreciate the leadership of both Sen. Warnick and Rep. Fitzgibbon for introducing these bills.  Finding the delicate balance to ensure our finite water resources are available to support “people, farms and fish” is not easy, and these are inherently controversial issues. We look forward to working with all interested parties to find a path forward.