S-4588.1  _______________________________________________

                    SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6141

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      55th Legislature     1998 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Agriculture & Environment (originally sponsored by Senators Morton, Rasmussen, Winsley, Goings and Schow)

Read first time 02/06/98.

Clarifying municipal water supply purposes.

    AN ACT Relating to water rights; and amending RCW 90.03.015 and 90.03.330.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

    Sec. 1.  RCW 90.03.015 and 1987 c 109 s 65 are each amended to read as follows:

    As used in this chapter:

    (1) "Department" means the department of ecology;

    (2) "Director" means the director of ecology; ((and))

    (3) "Person" means any firm, association, water users' association, corporation, irrigation district, or municipal corporation, as well as an individual;

(4) "Municipal water supply purposes" means the use of water to satisfy the needs of:

(a) A city;

(b) A town; or

(c) A public water system as defined in chapter 70.119A RCW or an approved satellite system management agency under chapter 70.116 RCW.  For the purposes of this subsection, a public water system must:

(i) Deliver water to more than one hundred equivalent residential units serving domestic use and one or more of the following associated uses:  Public, commercial, or industrial water use; and

(ii) Be required to serve potential customers under chapter 70.116 or 43.20 RCW.

Only that portion of water use, upon authorization by a water right, supplied by an irrigation district organized pursuant to chapter 87.03 RCW, that meets the criteria identified in this subsection for a public water system shall be designated to be for municipal water supply purposes.

    Sec. 2.  RCW 90.03.330 and 1987 c 109 s 89 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) Upon a showing satisfactory to the department that any appropriation has been perfected in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, it shall be the duty of the department to issue to the applicant a certificate stating such facts in a form to be prescribed by him, and such certificate shall thereupon be recorded with the department.  Any original water right certificate issued, as provided by this chapter, shall be recorded with the department and thereafter, at the expense of the party receiving the same, be by the department transmitted to the county auditor of the county or counties where the distributing system or any part thereof is located, and be recorded in the office of such county auditor, and thereafter be transmitted to the owner thereof.

(2) Certificated appropriations for municipal water supply purposes are vested, beneficially used, and perfected to the extent that the certificated withdrawal rates will be required to supply the public water system's instantaneous and annual demand within the public water system's approved service area, as established by the most recent fifty-year population projections in the county's growth management plan, approved water system plan, or the office of financial management.

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