BILL REQ. #:  S-5039.1 

READ FIRST TIME 02/03/06.   

     AN ACT Relating to water resource management in the Columbia river basin; amending 2005 c 488 s 332 (uncodified); amending 2005 c 488 s 332 (uncodified); adding new chapters to Title 90 RCW; creating a new section; making appropriations; and providing an effective date.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 101   (1) The legislature finds that state water resources management in the Columbia river basin must immediately initiate the development of new water supplies to meet the economic and community development needs of people and the instream flow needs of fish.
     (2) The legislature therefore declares that a Columbia river basin water supply development program is needed, and directs the department of ecology to aggressively pursue the development of cost-effective water supplies to benefit both instream and out-of-stream uses.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 102   (1) To support the development of new water supplies in the Columbia river, the department of ecology shall work with all interested parties, including but not limited to, interested watershed planning groups working adjacent to the Columbia river and tribal governments, to develop a Columbia river water supply inventory. The inventory must include:
     (a) A list of potential conservation and storage projects in the Columbia river basin;
     (b) Estimates of project costs and benefits;
     (c) A ranking of projects from the least expensive per acre-foot to the most expensive per acre-foot;
     (d) A ranking of projects from the most beneficial to fish and other instream values to the least beneficial to fish and other instream values; and
     (e) A ranking of projects from the most beneficial to agriculture to the least beneficial to agriculture.
     (2) The Columbia river water supply inventory should consider long-term trends in water supply and demand, rely on existing project data already completed by local planning groups, and supplement existing information as necessary to develop a useful inventory.
     (3) The department of ecology shall complete the first Columbia river water supply inventory by November 15, 2006, and shall update the inventory annually thereafter.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 103   (1) New water supplies developed and secured through the operation or development of storage facilities made possible with funding from the Columbia river basin water supply account shall be allocated as follows:
     (a) Two-thirds of active storage shall be allocated to out-of-stream uses; and
     (b) One-third of active storage shall be placed in the state trust water rights program to enhance instream flows. The timing of releases of this water shall be determined in cooperation with the department of fish and wildlife to maximize benefits to salmon and steelhead populations.
     (2) The one-third/two-thirds allocation of water resources between instream and out-of-stream uses that is established in this section shall not be applied by the department of ecology when considering applications for changes or transfers of existing water rights in the Columbia river basin.
     (3) The department of ecology shall focus its efforts to develop water supplies for the Columbia river basin on the following needs:
     (a) Alternatives to ground water for farmers in the Odessa subarea aquifer;
     (b) Sources of municipal water supply for pending water right applications;
     (c) A new uninterruptible supply of water for the holders of interruptible water rights on the Columbia river mainstem that are subject to instream flows or other mitigation conditions to protect stream flows; and
     (d) New municipal, domestic, industrial, and irrigation water needs within the Columbia river basin.
     (4) The department of ecology shall monitor and evaluate the new water allocated to instream use under this section and section 105 of this act, in order to identify the maximum streamflow that is beneficial to aquatic life. The department shall submit a decadal report to the appropriate committees of the legislature that identifies how much new water has been dedicated to instream uses and how close the Columbia river basin is to reaching the maximum beneficial flow during the times of the year with the lowest flow levels.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 104   (1) In order to implement the Columbia river basin water supply development program, the department of ecology may enter into voluntary regional agreements that establish conditions under which water withdrawn from the Columbia river may be approved. These agreements shall pertain to specific geographic areas and to individuals or entities that use or propose to use water from the Columbia river mainstem.
     (a) Voluntary regional agreements based upon conserved water are authorized. Conserved water shall be allocated in a manner that concurrently ensures that:
     (i) Water is provided for out-of-stream uses; and
     (ii) No reduction in stream flows in the Columbia river mainstem will occur as a result of the new appropriation of water.
     (b) Applicants under a voluntary regional agreement must demonstrate efficient water use practices.
     (c) Voluntary regional agreements based upon accessing water supplies from new or existing storage facilities shall be implemented consistent with the requirements of section 103 of this act. Applicants under a voluntary regional agreement must demonstrate efficient water use practices.
     (2) The mitigation standards established in this section are intended to streamline issuance of new water rights from the Columbia river.
     (3)(a) Before entering into a voluntary agreement under this section, the department of ecology must:
     (i) Consult with the department of fish and wildlife and watershed planning groups regarding the benefits that the voluntary agreement can produce for fish and wildlife species and other instream values on the Columbia river mainstem; and
     (ii) Provide a thirty-day public review and comment period for a draft agreement, and publish a summary of any public comments received. The thirty-day review period shall not begin until after the department of ecology has concluded its consultation with the department of fish and wildlife and the appropriate watershed planning groups.
     (b) To meet its responsibility under this section, the department of fish and wildlife shall consult with fisheries comanagers and shall inform the department of ecology of the recommendations of fisheries comanagers. The department of fish and wildlife shall provide comments, including the recommendations of fisheries comanagers, to the department within thirty days following receipt of a draft agreement for review.
     (4) The department may enter into voluntary regional agreements when the points of diversion of any permits issued under an agreement would be located on the Columbia river mainstem or rely upon ground water within one mile from the river. Agreements are authorized from the Canadian border downstream to the Bonneville dam.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 105   Conserved water funded by the state:
     (1) To benefit the Columbia river mainstem shall be permanently held in trust in proportion to the share of funding provided by the state to complete the project. Water held in trust under this section shall be used to improve instream flows for the benefit of fish and other instream values;
     (2) Developed within the federal Columbia basin reclamation project shall become a portion of the project water supply to be used to replace deep well irrigation within the Odessa ground water management subarea and to reduce water diversions from the Columbia river.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 106   (1) By July 1, 2006, the department shall convene discussion groups, including all appropriate stakeholders, to consider and make recommendations on the following issues:
     (a) The public interest in regional equity regarding the sources of water supplies and mechanisms, to determine whether interregional water transfers jeopardize the economic health of any region or tributary basin. The review must also consider mechanisms that might provide for water supplies in other regions while retaining the water right in the region of the water source;
     (b) Before the end of the legislative session immediately following the completion of the review in (a) of this subsection, the department shall hold in abeyance any and all of its efforts to permanently acquire existing water rights for the purposes of transferring those rights to a downstream user in the Columbia river basin as a source of water supply or mitigation. This moratorium shall be limited to water rights physically located upstream from John Day dam; and
     (c) Whether a water bank for the Columbia river mainstem would simplify and improve the approval of water acquisitions, leases, loans, and exchanges; reduce the time and costs associated with such transactions; and increase the availability of water supplies and water-related information.
     (2) Reports from the reviews under this section are due to the appropriate committees of the legislature by December 31, 2006.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 107   (1) The Columbia river basin water supply account is created in the state treasury. The account may receive direct appropriations from the legislature and receipts of payments made by water users that are based on an appropriate and economically viable share of construction, operation, and maintenance costs of water supply projects.
     (2) Expenditures from the Columbia river basin water supply account may be used to assess, plan, and develop new storage, improve or alter operations of existing storage facilities, implement conservation projects, or other actions, designed to provide access to new water supplies within the Columbia river basin for both instream and out-of-stream uses.
     (3) The department of ecology shall manage any appropriations made from the account for the purposes of developing water supplies in a manner that yields the greatest benefits to the state while minimizing associated costs.
     (4) The account is subject to legislative appropriation.
     (5) Interest earned by deposits in the account will be retained in the account.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 108   (1) To establish a more complete understanding of current water uses, the department of ecology shall compile, and if necessary collect, all existing information and publish data on:
     (a) The total aggregate quantity of water issued under state permits and certificates and filed under state claims on the Columbia river mainstem and for ground water within one mile of the mainstem;
     (b) The total aggregate volume of current water use under these rights as metered and reported by water users;
     (c) The aggregate quantity of water that is currently inchoate or under development under these rights;
     (d) Conservation projects that have been implemented under this chapter and the amount of water conservation they have achieved; and
     (e) Other relevant water use data.
     (2) The department of ecology shall collect this data annually and publish it on the department's web site no later than November 1st of each year.

Sec. 109   2005 c 488 s 332 (uncodified) is amended to read as follows:
FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY
     Columbia River Initiative (06-2-010)

     The appropriation in this section is subject to the following conditions and limitations:
     (1) $6,000,000 is provided solely for feasibility studies related to off-mainstem storage projects and impacts of changing operations at the Potholes reservoir, and grant funding for the purchase and installation of water measuring devices.
     (2) Of the amount appropriated in this section, $10,000,000 ((may not be expended prior to enactment of state legislation that establishes the policy requirements for a new water resources and water rights management program for the Columbia river mainstem. If such legislation is not enacted prior to June 30, 2006, this amount shall lapse)) is provided to begin implementation of the Columbia river basin water supply development program in sections 103 through 108 of this act. Within this amount, the department shall support, to the extent that projects are ready to proceed and to the extent that resources allow, the following water supply projects, including, but not limited to: Storage development or storage enhancement projects, projects that provide surface water supply for the Odessa subarea within the boundaries of the Columbia river basin project, projects which enhance water supplies for the Walla Walla and Yakima rivers through exchanges and other methods, and investments resulting in water use efficiency. The department shall report progress under this section to the appropriate committees of the legislature by December 1, 2006.

Appropriation:
     State Building Construction Account--State . . . . . . . . . . . . $16,000,000

     Prior Biennia (Expenditures) . . . . . . . . . . . . $0
     Future Biennia (Projected Costs) . . . . . . . . . . . . $52,610,000
          TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . $68,610,000

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 201   (1) The legislature finds that the highest priority of water resource management in the Columbia river basin is the development of new water supplies to meet the economic and community development needs of people and the instream flow needs of fish.
     (2) The legislature therefore declares that a Columbia river basin water storage development program is needed, and directs the department of ecology to aggressively facilitate the development of new storage that will provide access to new water supplies to benefit both instream and out-of-stream uses.
     (3) The department shall allocate new water supplies developed and secured with funding from the Columbia river basin water storage account created in section 202 of this act as follows: Two-thirds shall be allocated to out-of-stream uses and one-third shall be managed by the department of ecology to improve instream flows to the extent needed to benefit fish.
     (4) The department shall focus its efforts on the following out-of-stream uses: Alternatives to ground water for farmers in the Odessa subarea; sources of municipal water supply for pending water right applications and existing mainstem water right permits requiring mitigation; a new uninterruptible supply of water for holders of interruptible water rights on the Columbia river mainstem that are subject to minimum instream flows or other mitigation conditions to protect stream flows; new supplies of water for the Yakima basin to be provided through completion of the Black Rock storage project; and new municipal, domestic, industrial, and irrigation water needs within the Columbia river basin.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 202   (1) The Columbia river basin water storage account is created in the state treasury. The sum of fifty million dollars is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 2007, from the state building construction account to the department of ecology for deposit into the Columbia river basin water storage account to implement the purposes in section 201 of this act.
     (2) Appropriations from the account must be used by the department to facilitate the development of new storage that will provide access to new water supplies to benefit both instream and out-of-stream uses in accordance with section 201 of this act.
     (3) The account is subject to legislative appropriation.
     (4) Interest earned by deposits to the account will be retained in the account.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 203   (1) In managing the waters of the state, the department of ecology shall vigorously seek to develop solutions to water usage and allocation concerns on a regional basis. These regional solutions must, to the maximum extent practicable, include:
     (a) Input from and acceptance by citizens within the affected region;
     (b) Voluntary processes and agreements that develop unique solutions for each region;
     (c) Avoidance of policies that will create precedents impacting the ability of other regions of the state to develop their own unique solutions; and
     (d) Efforts to harmonize such regional efforts with watershed planning efforts conducted under the authority of this chapter or chapter 90.82 RCW.
     (2) Nothing in this chapter is intended to stop the processing of applications for new water rights. Nothing in this chapter may be interpreted or administered in a manner that precludes the use of existing authority to process water right applications under chapter 90.03 or 90.44 RCW, or in a manner that impairs or diminishes a valid water right.
     (3) In implementing this section, the department of ecology shall inform the legislature as to such efforts and request any additional authority needed for implementation.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 204   (1) In order to secure new water supplies over the short term that will benefit both instream and out-of-stream uses, the department of ecology shall aggressively pursue and facilitate the implementation of new or expanded conservation projects in the Columbia river basin. In implementing such projects, the department shall rely on conservation project studies or plans already completed by existing local watershed planning groups, the federal bureau of reclamation, irrigation districts, and conservation districts in the Columbia river basin. Priority in funding water conservation projects should ensure that the most cost-effective projects, consistent with the objectives of this chapter and providing the greatest benefit to agriculture and fish, are funded before more expensive or less beneficial conservation projects are funded.
     (2) Water conserved as a result of state investment in conservation projects shall be held in trust by the state for the life of the water conservation project and in proportion to the share of funding provided by the state to complete the project, and shall revert to the water right holder at the end of the conservation project's effective life.
     (3) Conserved water held in trust under subsection (2) of this section shall be allocated and appropriated in proportions equivalent to those established in section 201(3) of this act in order to provide new water supplies for out-of-stream uses and to improve instream flows to the extent needed to benefit fish.
     (4) In securing new water supplies gained through water conservation projects, the department of ecology shall focus its initial efforts on providing alternatives to ground water for farmers in the Odessa subarea; sources of municipal water supply for pending water right applications and existing mainstem water right permits requiring mitigation; and a new uninterruptible supply of water for holders of interruptible water rights on the Columbia river mainstem that are subject to minimum instream flows or other mitigation conditions to protect stream flows.
     (5) For the purposes of this section, "water conservation project" means any project or program located in the Columbia river basin, including water conservation projects implemented up to fifteen years before July 1, 2006, that contribute to relieving water shortages, provide for presently unmet needs, and assist in meeting future water needs, or that achieve physical or operational improvements that provide for increased water use efficiency in any systems of diversion, conveyance, application, or use of water under water rights.
     (6) A water right holder conserving water under a water conservation project shall not be deemed to have voluntarily failed to beneficially use the conserved water if the person has continued to use at least a portion of the water right for the established purpose of use.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 205   (1) In order to better understand current water use in the Columbia river mainstem, the department of ecology shall establish and maintain a Columbia river mainstem water resources information system that provides the information necessary for effective mainstem water resource planning and management. To accomplish this objective, the department shall use information already compiled by existing local watershed planning groups, the federal bureau of reclamation, the Bonneville power administration, irrigation districts, and conservation districts in the basin.
     (2) The data program shall include a system for collecting and providing access to water resource data. The department of ecology shall develop a system of cataloging, storing, and retrieving the information so it may be made readily available to and effectively used by the department and by the public.
     (3) The department of ecology shall collect this data and publish it on the department's web site no later than November 1, 2006.

Sec. 206   2005 c 488 s 332 (uncodified) is amended to read as follows:
FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY
     Columbia River Initiative (06-2-010)

     The appropriation in this section is subject to the following conditions and limitations:
     (1) $6,000,000 is provided solely for feasibility studies related to off-mainstem storage projects and impacts of changing operations at the Potholes reservoir, and grant funding for the purchase and installation of water measuring devices.
     (2) Of the amount appropriated in this section, $10,000,000 ((may not)) shall be expended ((prior to enactment of state legislation that establishes the policy requirements for a new water resources and water rights management program for the Columbia river mainstem. If such legislation is not enacted prior to June 30, 2006, this amount shall lapse)) to begin implementation of sections 201 through 205 of this act. The department shall report progress under this section to the appropriate committees of the legislature by December 1, 2006.

Appropriation:
     State Building Construction Account--State . . . . . . . . . . . . $16,000,000

     Prior Biennia (Expenditures) . . . . . . . . . . . . $0
     Future Biennia (Projected Costs) . . . . . . . . . . . . $52,610,000
          TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . $68,610,000

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 301   Part headings used in this act are not any part of the law.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 302   Sections 101 through 108 of this act constitute a new chapter in Title 90 RCW.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 303   Sections 201 through 205 of this act constitute a new chapter in Title 90 RCW.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 304   This act takes effect July 1, 2006.