[atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to watercourse maintenance; adding a new section to chapter 75.20 RCW; creating new sections; and making an appropriation.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature recognizes the importance of long-term habitat productivity and diversity for fish, and for the protection of water quality and quantity to meet the needs of people and fish. The legislature also recognizes the importance of maintaining and enhancing fish habitats necessary to sustain healthy fish populations. The legislature additionally recognizes that impacts from upstream and upland storm water run-off that is inadequately controlled can significantly affect fish habitat and water quality and quantity. One impact is an increased deposit of sediment in watercourses in agricultural lands. Such impacts increase the need for drainage maintenance.

(2) The legislature finds that: (a) Watercourse maintenance activities can be conducted in a manner that is beneficial to fish habitat and fish propagation; and (b) the state lacks a clear policy relating to watercourse maintenance activities, especially what differentiates an entirely artificial watercourse from a natural watercourse that has been altered by man.

(3) The legislature therefore declares that watercourse maintenance activities shall be regulated in the least burdensome manner that is consistent with the state's fish management objectives and the federal endangered species act.

(4) It is the intent of the legislature to authorize the department of fish and wildlife to adopt rules applicable to watercourse maintenance activities under chapter 75.20 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 75.20 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The department shall adopt rules applicable to watercourse maintenance activities. The department shall adopt these rules in cooperation with the affected communities and other interested parties.

(2) The department shall develop rules for watercourse maintenance activities that will use, divert, obstruct, or change the natural flow or bed of any of the salt or fresh waters of the state. Rules shall include criteria for differentiation of wholly artificial watercourses from natural watercourses that have been altered by man. Following the adoption of the rules, the department shall update and distribute the irrigation and fish pamphlet describing the methods of watercourse maintenance activities that are approved under the rules. The pamphlet serves as the hydraulic project approval for any project that is conducted solely for watercourse maintenance and that is conducted as described in the pamphlet. No further hydraulic project approval is required for such a project.

(3) Nothing in this section prohibits the department from requiring a hydraulic project approval for those parts of hydraulic projects that are not specifically described in the pamphlet.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. (1) As a first step in the rule-making process required under section 2 of this act, the department of fish and wildlife shall conduct a pilot project in at least one representative and willing drainage district in cooperation with the conservation commission, local farmers, and other interested parties. The purpose of the pilot project is to develop interim guidelines to serve as a model for application state-wide. The pilot will focus on natural watercourses that have been substantially altered by man in previous times and are commonly referred to as drainage ditches. Management practices will be developed that provide for occasional maintenance to remove build up of silt and noxious weeds, such as reed canary grass, in a manner that does not decrease, and where possible increases, fish habitat and water quality in these watercourses. The growing of shade trees on one side of drainage ditches as a means of discouraging growth of reed canary grass while providing improved fish and wildlife benefits shall be considered. The project shall also include an investigation, in cooperation with the department of ecology, of the adequacy of storm water programs for upland urbanized land that may drain into the project area. Any local jurisdictions with inadequate storm water programs will be notified accordingly. The department of fish and wildlife shall submit a report to the legislature by December 1, 2000, concerning the pilot project created in this section.

(2) The pilot project shall be completed by June 30, 2000, and the rules shall be adopted by March 31, 2001. The updated pamphlet shall be published within two months of adoption of the rules.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. The sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2000, from the general fund to the department of fish and wildlife for the purposes of funding the pilot project created in section 3 of this act, rule development work under this act, and the report to the legislature.