[atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to incorporating water supply and growth management planning; amending RCW 43.62.035 and 90.82.070; reenacting and amending RCW 90.54.050; adding a new section to chapter 43.62 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 36.70A RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that water supply availability is an important consideration in planning for future population growth, but that presently there is inadequate integration of the information relating to existing water resources and current and forecasted water use demands into the forecasts of population growth and growth management planning to accommodate the forecasted growth. The legislature further finds that public and private municipal water suppliers having a duty to serve new growth within their service areas should have a greater role in the regional growth management planning activities that will determine the location of new growth for which adequate water service will be expected.

Therefore, the legislature intends to better integrate water supply availability information and water service planning into growth management planning and related land use and infrastructure planning and programs.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 43.62 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The office of financial management shall adopt guidelines and methodologies for considering water supply availability in determining growth management population planning projections under RCW 43.62.035. In developing the guidelines and methodologies, the office shall work with the departments of ecology and health, general purpose local governments, and municipal water suppliers.

(2) To assist the office in developing and employing the guidelines and methodologies under this section, the department of ecology shall use maximum effort to provide timely information regarding existing surface and ground water resources, watershed-level water resource assessments prepared under chapter 90.82 RCW, and other information relating to water resources and present and forecasted water use demands.

Sec. 3. RCW 43.62.035 and 1997 c 429 s 26 are each amended to read as follows:

The office of financial management shall determine the population of each county of the state annually as of April 1st of each year and on or before July 1st of each year shall file a certificate with the secretary of state showing its determination of the population for each county. The office of financial management also shall determine the percentage increase in population for each county over the preceding ten-year period, as of April 1st, and shall file a certificate with the secretary of state by July 1st showing its determination. At least once every five years or upon the availability of decennial census data, whichever is later, the office of financial management shall prepare twenty-year growth management planning population projections required by RCW 36.70A.110 for each county that adopts a comprehensive plan under RCW 36.70A.040 and shall review these projections with such counties and the cities in those counties before final adoption. Beginning with revised projections issued after July 1, 2003, the office shall incorporate consideration of water supply availability using the guidelines and methodologies authorized by section 2 of this act. The county and its cities may provide to the office such information as they deem relevant to the office's projection, and the office shall consider and comment on such information before adoption. Each projection shall be expressed as a reasonable range developed within the standard state high and low projection. The middle range shall represent the office's estimate of the most likely population projection for the county. If any city or county believes that a projection will not accurately reflect actual population growth in a county, it may petition the office to revise the projection accordingly. The office shall complete the first set of ranges for every county by December 31, 1995.

A comprehensive plan adopted or amended before December 31, 1995, shall not be considered to be in noncompliance with the twenty-year growth management planning population projection if the projection used in the comprehensive plan is in compliance with the range later adopted under this section.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A new section is added to chapter 36.70A RCW to read as follows:

In the development and amendment of comprehensive plans under this chapter and in the development of regional policies under RCW 36.70A.210, counties and cities shall ensure full consideration of water supply service plans, water resource availability information, and water use demand forecasts by the departments of ecology and health and by municipal water service providers with a service area within the geographic extent of the comprehensive plans and regional policies.

Sec. 5. 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) When completed, the assessment shall be provided to each county and city within the management area that is conducting growth management planning under chapter 36.70A RCW, and to the office of financial management for consideration in determining growth management population planning projections under RCW 43.62.035.

(3) 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~~)), water quality protection, and other environmental quality benefits, 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~~)), and to incorporate these strategies into a watershed plan that may be integrated with comprehensive plans and regional policies developed under the growth management act, chapter 36.70A RCW, and in land use and infrastructure plans of counties and cities not planning under the growth management act. 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.

Sec. 6. RCW 90.54.050 and 1997 c 439 s 2 and 1997 c 32 s 3 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:

(1) In conjunction with the programs provided for in RCW 90.54.040(1), whenever it appears necessary to the director in carrying out the policy of this chapter, the department may by rule adopted pursuant to chapter 34.05 RCW:

((~~(1)~~)) (a) Reserve and set aside waters for beneficial utilization in the future, and

((~~(2)~~)) (b) When sufficient information and data are lacking to allow for the making of sound decisions, withdraw various waters of the state from additional appropriations until such data and information are available. Before proposing the adoption of rules to withdraw waters of the state from additional appropriation, the department shall consult with the standing committees of the house of representatives and the senate having jurisdiction over water resource management issues.

(2) When the office of financial management determines a growth management population planning projection for a county or watershed that the department has identified as currently overappropriated and for which water supplies to serve the projected population may be inadequate, the department shall provide assistance to the appropriate counties, cities, and any applicable watershed planning unit in identifying potential sources of supply to serve the projected growth. The potential sources may include elements of a water quantity strategy developed as part of a watershed plan under chapter 90.82 RCW, and may include state financial and other assistance in making sufficient supplies available to serve the projected growth. The department by rule may identify and reserve for future use such supplies, including reference to plans, projects, and funding mechanisms to make such supplies available.

(3) Prior to the adoption of a rule under this section, the department shall conduct a public hearing in each county in which waters relating to the rule are located. The public hearing shall be preceded by a notice placed in a newspaper of general circulation published within each of said counties. Rules adopted hereunder shall be subject to review in accordance with the provisions of RCW 34.05.240.