BILL REQ. #:  S-0639.4 

Read first time 02/13/09.   Referred to Committee on Environment, Water & Energy.

     AN ACT Relating to fire suppression ponds; amending RCW 90.03.015, 90.44.035, and 90.44.050; adding a new section to chapter 90.03 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 90.44 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   Current population growth and expanding development into traditionally nonurban areas have increasingly brought humans into contact with wildfires. The level of development of an area and that area's proximity to a municipal water system directly affects the amount of water available to firefighters for suppression activities. Homes in areas without access to a municipal water system are more difficult to defend and protect from wildfire as water must be brought to the site in tankers or by drawing from static water sources nearby. The forecasted growth in catastrophic wildfires indicates that climatic change could cause an increase in both fire suppression costs and economic losses due to wildfires. It is therefore the purpose of this act to recognize the importance of preventing wildfires by allowing landowners in rural areas to create a small fire suppression pond on their property that can be used for fire prevention and fire suppression purposes.

Sec. 2   RCW 90.03.015 and 2003 1st sp.s. c 5 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (1) "Department" means the department of ecology.
     (2) "Director" means the director of ecology.
     (3) "Fire suppression pond" means a pond of less than ten acre feet in volume used to impound water for fire suppression or fire prevention. Fire prevention includes, but is not limited to, water stored for emergency fire suppression activities or for the application of water to trees or other vegetation in order to prevent or address hazardous fire conditions.
     (4) "Municipal water supplier" means an entity that supplies water for municipal water supply purposes.
     (((4))) (5) "Municipal water supply purposes" means a beneficial use of water: (a) For residential purposes through fifteen or more residential service connections or for providing residential use of water for a nonresidential population that is, on average, at least twenty-five people for at least sixty days a year; (b) for governmental or governmental proprietary purposes by a city, town, public utility district, county, sewer district, or water district; or (c) indirectly for the purposes in (a) or (b) of this subsection through the delivery of treated or raw water to a public water system for such use. If water is beneficially used under a water right for the purposes listed in (a), (b), or (c) of this subsection, any other beneficial use of water under the right generally associated with the use of water within a municipality is also for "municipal water supply purposes," including, but not limited to, beneficial use for commercial, industrial, irrigation of parks and open spaces, institutional, landscaping, fire flow, water system maintenance and repair, or related purposes. If a governmental entity holds a water right that is for the purposes listed in (a), (b), or (c) of this subsection, its use of water or its delivery of water for any other beneficial use generally associated with the use of water within a municipality is also for "municipal water supply purposes," including, but not limited to, beneficial use for commercial, industrial, irrigation of parks and open spaces, institutional, landscaping, fire flow, water system maintenance and repair, or related purposes.
     (((5))) (6) "Person" means any firm, association, water users' association, corporation, irrigation district, or municipal corporation, as well as an individual.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   A new section is added to chapter 90.03 RCW to read as follows:
     A withdrawal of surface water for a fire suppression pond is exempt from the permit requirements of this chapter.

Sec. 4   RCW 90.44.035 and 2000 c 98 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
     ((For purposes of this chapter:)) The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (1) "Department" means the department of ecology((;)).
     (2) "Director" means the director of ecology((;)).
     (3) "Fire suppression pond" means a pond of less than ten acre feet in volume used to impound water for fire suppression or fire prevention. Fire prevention includes, but is not limited to, water stored for emergency fire suppression activities or for the application of water to trees or other vegetation in order to prevent or address hazardous fire conditions.
     (4) "Groundwaters" means all waters that exist beneath the land surface or beneath the bed of any stream, lake or reservoir, or other body of surface water within the boundaries of this state, whatever may be the geological formation or structure in which such water stands or flows, percolates or otherwise moves. There is a recognized distinction between natural groundwater and artificially stored groundwater((;)).
     (((4))) (5) "Natural groundwater" means water that exists in underground storage owing wholly to natural processes((;)).
     (((5))) (6) "Artificially stored groundwater" means water that is made available in underground storage artificially, either intentionally, or incidentally to irrigation and that otherwise would have been dissipated by natural processes((; and)).
     (((6))) (7) "Underground artificial storage and recovery project" means any project in which it is intended to artificially store water in the ground through injection, surface spreading and infiltration, or other department-approved method, and to make subsequent use of the stored water. However, (a) this subsection does not apply to irrigation return flow, or to operational and seepage losses that occur during the irrigation of land, or to water that is artificially stored due to the construction, operation, or maintenance of an irrigation district project, or to projects involving water reclaimed in accordance with chapter 90.46 RCW; and (b) RCW 90.44.130 applies to those instances of claimed artificial recharge occurring due to the construction, operation, or maintenance of an irrigation district project or operational and seepage losses that occur during the irrigation of land, as well as other forms of claimed artificial recharge already existing at the time a groundwater subarea is established.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   A new section is added to chapter 90.44 RCW to read as follows:
     A withdrawal of public groundwaters for a fire suppression pond is exempt from the permit requirements of RCW 90.44.050.

Sec. 6   RCW 90.44.050 and 2003 c 307 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     After June 6, 1945, no withdrawal of public groundwaters of the state shall be begun, nor shall any well or other works for such withdrawal be constructed, unless an application to appropriate such waters has been made to the department and a permit has been granted by it as herein provided((: EXCEPT, HOWEVER, That)). However, any withdrawal of public groundwaters for stock-watering purposes, or for the watering of a lawn or of a noncommercial garden not exceeding one-half acre in area, or for single or group domestic uses in an amount not exceeding five thousand gallons a day, or as provided in RCW 90.44.052 or section 5 of this act, or for an industrial purpose in an amount not exceeding five thousand gallons a day, is and shall be exempt from the provisions of this section, but, to the extent that it is regularly used beneficially, shall be entitled to a right equal to that established by a permit issued under the provisions of this chapter((: PROVIDED, HOWEVER, That)). The department from time to time may require the person or agency making any such small withdrawal to furnish information as to the means for and the quantity of that withdrawal((: PROVIDED, FURTHER, That)). Additionally, at the option of the party making withdrawals of groundwaters of the state not exceeding five thousand gallons per day, applications under this section or declarations under RCW 90.44.090 may be filed and permits and certificates obtained in the same manner and under the same requirements as is in this chapter provided in the case of withdrawals in excess of five thousand gallons a day.