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SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1258
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Passed Legislature - 1993 Regular Session
State of Washington 53rd Legislature 1993
Regular Session
By
Read first time 02/03/93.
Modifying water rights claims
provision.
AN ACT Relating to
claim of right to withdraw, divert, or use ground or surface waters; and adding
a new section to chapter 90.14 RCW.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF
WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.
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, 1993, a statement of claim as provided in RCW
90.14.051(1) through (8) if: (a) The statement embodies a claim of a right to
divert public waters with a priority date that is prior to June 6, 1917; and
(b) the statement is accompanied by a notarized affidavit or affidavits,
relating to and supporting the rights claimed in the statement, that satisfy
the requirements of this subsection.
(2) 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 the 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 January
1, 1993.
(3) 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.
(4) 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.
(5) Nothing in this section
shall be construed as (a) a recognition by the legislature that a right claimed
in a statement of claim, as authorized for filing by this section, constitutes
a valid claim or that such right does or does not exist, or (b) a determination
by the legislature as to the applicability or inapplicability of state water
rights laws to waters within any Indian reservation.
