PREPROPOSAL STATEMENT OF INQUIRY
Subject of Possible Rule Making: Establishment of instream flows for the Lower Skagit mainstem and Cultus Mountain tributaries. All pending and subsequent water right applications will be conditioned to the instream flows, if applicable.
Statutes Authorizing the Agency to Adopt Rules on this Subject: Chapters 43.21A, 43.27A, 90.03, 90.44, 90.54 RCW.
Reasons Why Rules on this Subject may be Needed and What They Might Accomplish: The Skagit Basin is among the few basins in western Washington for which instream flows have not been adopted. The basin seemingly has abundant water and fish; however, with Puget Sound chinook salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act and increasing population growth, ecology and others believe rules to protect the salmon runs must be adopted, where appropriate, as soon as practicable. Ecology is not processing water right applications in the Skagit Basin until the instream flows are addressed.
Other Federal and State Agencies that Regulate this Subject and the Process Coordinating the Rule with These Agencies: No other agencies directly regulate instream flows. The National Marine Fisheries Service has responsibility for listing threatened and endangered anadromous fish runs and ensuring their recovery under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The ESA is a powerful regulatory tool which could conceivably be used to intervene in water management if the state did not do so to protect flows for listed fish.
Process for Developing New Rule: The instream flows will be formally adopted through a collaborative effort among ecology, other state agencies, a workgroup formed under an MOA (which also worked with experts to identify appropriate instream flows), and affected tribes. The rule adoption process will be coordinated by ecology's watershed lead and coordinated with other planning activities under ESHB 2514.
Interested parties can participate in the decision to adopt the new rule and formulation of the proposed rule before publication. There will be a number of public involvement opportunities during the rule-development process, including public workshops and hearings to be held in the summer and fall of 1999. For more information on the rule adoption and the proposed instream flows, contact Rod Sakrison, Skagit Watershed Lead, Washington Department of Ecology, (425) 649-4447, or by e-mail rsak461@ecy.wa.gov.
July 14, 1999
Keith E. Phillips
Program Manager