2628-S

ESHB 2628 - S COMM AMD

By Committee on Agriculture & Water Resources

Strike everything after the enacting clause and insert the following:

"NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that fish and wildlife habitat will be adversely affected if water service to an area in the state that includes a national wildlife refuge is discontinued. The legislature finds that the continuation of the existing diversion of water is necessary to protect, preserve, and perpetuate the fish and wildlife habitat that exists on the national wildlife refuge area and on adjacent agricultural and grazing lands irrigated from such diversion."

"NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 90.14 RCW to read as follows:

(1) A person may file with the department of ecology not later than August 31, 1992, a statement of claim as provided in RCW 90.14.051(1) through (8) if: The statement embodies a claim of a right to divert public waters with a priority date that is prior to June 6, 1917; and the statement is accompanied by a notarized affidavit or affidavits, relating to and supporting the rights claimed in the statement, which satisfy the requirements of this subsection.

Affidavits accompanying a statement filed under this section shall be signed by a person or persons who attest in the affidavits to: (a) Having witnessed personally a posting of a notice of intent to establish a water right at the point of diversion of such claimed right; and (b) having direct knowledge of the diversion of waters associated with that right, through conveyance systems, to the places of beneficial use without interruption each year for the fifty-year period immediately preceding the effective date of this section.

The department shall accept any statement of claim which satisfies the requirements of subsection (1) of this section if a portion of the diverted water is delivered to lands included in a national wildlife refuge. The department shall file the same in the water rights claims registry established by RCW 90.14.111.

(2) The provisions of RCW 90.14.071, regarding waiving and relinquishing a water right or any title or interest in a right, do not apply to a claim filed pursuant to this section. However, reopening the period for filing a statement of claim for a water right as provided by this section shall not affect or impair in any respect whatsoever any water right existing prior to the effective date of this section whether such a previously existing right was established under territorial, state, or federal law or is embodied in rights derived under federal treaties or under federal doctrine regarding reserved rights for federal reservations of the public domain. Further, a water right embodied in a statement of claim filed under this section is, without regard to priority date, subordinate to any water right embodied in a permit or certificate issued pursuant to chapter 90.03 or 90.44 RCW before the effective date of this section or embodied in a statement of claim filed in the water rights claims registry before the effective date of this section.

(3) Nothing in this section impacts or affects in any manner whatsoever the authority of the state, an Indian tribe, or any other governmental entity to allocate, regulate, or administer water rights on a federal reservation or changes the jurisdiction of any governmental entity."

ESHB 2628 - S COMM AMD

By Committee on Agriculture & Water Resources

On page 1, line 2 of the title, after "lands;" strike the remainder of the title and insert "adding a new section to chapter 90.14 RCW; and creating a new section."