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ENGROSSED
SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5919
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Passed
Legislature - 2001 Second Special Session
State of Washington 57th
Legislature 2001 Regular Session
By
READ FIRST TIME 02/21/01.
Providing
for the assessment of potential site locations for water storage projects.
AN
ACT Relating to the assessment of potential site locations for water storage
projects; amending RCW 90.82.070; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE
LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW
SECTION. Sec. 1. The
legislature recognizes the potential for additional water storage as a solution
to the water supply needs of the state. Last year the legislature created a
task force to examine the role of increased water storage in providing water
supplies to meet the needs of fish, population growth, and economic
development, and to enhance the protection of people's lives and their property
and the protection of aquatic habitat through flood control facilities. One
solution discussed by the task force to address the state's water supply
problem is to store water when there is excess runoff and stream flow, and
deliver or release it during the low flow period when it is needed. The task
force discussed the need for assessments of potential site locations for water
storage projects. The legislature intends this act to assist in obtaining the
assessments relating to water storage.
Sec.
2. RCW
90.82.070 and 1998 c 247 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
Watershed
planning under this chapter shall address water quantity in the management area
by undertaking an assessment of water supply and use in the management area and
developing strategies for future use.
(1)
The assessment shall include:
(a)
An estimate of the surface and ground water present in the management area;
(b)
An estimate of the surface and ground water available in the management area,
taking into account seasonal and other variations;
(c)
An estimate of the water in the management area represented by claims in the
water rights claims registry, water use permits, certificated rights, existing
minimum instream flow rules, federally reserved rights, and any other rights to
water;
(d)
An estimate of the surface and ground water actually being used in the
management area;
(e)
An estimate of the water needed in the future for use in the management area;
(f)
An identification of the location of areas where aquifers are known to recharge
surface bodies of water and areas known to provide for the recharge of aquifers
from the surface; and
(g)
An estimate of the surface and ground water available for further
appropriation, taking into account the minimum instream flows adopted by rule
or to be adopted by rule under this chapter for streams in the management area
including the data necessary to evaluate necessary flows for fish.
(2)
Strategies for increasing water supplies in the management area, which may
include, but are not limited to, increasing water supplies through water
conservation, water reuse, the use of reclaimed water, voluntary water
transfers, aquifer recharge and recovery, additional water allocations, or
additional water storage and water storage enhancements. The objective of
these strategies is to supply water in sufficient quantities to satisfy the minimum
instream flows for fish and to provide water for future out-of-stream uses for
water identified in subsection (1)(e) and (g) of this section and to ensure
that adequate water supplies are available for agriculture, energy production,
and population and economic growth under the requirements of the state's growth
management act, chapter 36.70A RCW. These strategies, in and of themselves,
shall not be construed to confer new water rights. The watershed plan must
address the strategies required under this subsection.
(3) The assessment may include the identification of potential
site locations for water storage projects. The potential site locations may be
for either large or small projects and cover the full range of possible
alternatives. The possible alternatives include off-channel storage,
underground storage, the enlargement or enhancement of existing storage, and
on-channel storage.
