To provide that, for a public water system, the maximum number of service connections, maximum population to be served, or size or location of the place of use as described on a water right may not be an attribute limiting exercise of the water right if an annual quantity limit can be determined from the permit, certificate, or claim. The bill also provides that a water system plan is required to be approved for the public water system under chapter 43.20 RCW or as part of a coordinated water system plan under chapter 70.116 RCW. The number of service connections or population served under the water right may be further expanded only during such time as the public water system is in compliance with the requirements of its approved water system plan. See also Companion HB 1542.   Official Text and Analysis.

To state that the bill provides greater certainty for municipal water rights and will enable growing cities to provide sufficient water to meet projected demands. The bill's clarification of "place of use" as the service area in the state-approved water system plan is needed. The bill appropriately includes irrigation districts within the definition of "municipal water supplier." The "use it or lose it" relinquishment rule in current law creates inefficiencies.

To state that private purveyors and irrigation districts should not be included in the definition of "municipal water supplier." Irrigation districts should be included in the definition of "municipal water supplier" only if with respect to municipal water supply functions. The paramount rights of Native American tribes should be recognized. The bill places a higher value on future growth over current needs. The bill may unconstitutionally affect vested water rights of Native American tribes. Future municipal water service area projections should be linked to Growth Management Act review.

To change the definition of "municipal water supplier" to: (1) provide that public water system purveyors must own or operate group A water systems (i.e., systems with 15 or more service connections or systems serving an average of 25 or more people per day for 60 or more days a year) to meet the definition; and (2) include counties appointed as receivers of failing water systems or approved as satellite system management agencies, or cities, towns or counties holding rights for use in their own governmental or proprietary operations.

To add a null and void clause.

By Senator Jim Honeyford; Jim Rioux, Department of Health/Governor's Water Team; Bill Stauffacher, WA PUD Assn. They testified that this bill will allow municipalities to grow into their certificated water rights. The Governor's water team favors the bill. It gives municipalities certainty and flexibility to efficiently manage water resources. It also will reduce transaction costs.
Testimony against: none offered.

To add a null and void clause.

Regarding municipal water systems.

To define municipal water use by the type of use rather than also by the entities that distribute water; allow certain additional uses of municipal water rights; identify when rights represented by "pumps and pipes" certificates are in good standing; allow limited revisions to certificates to address ministerial errors and misrepresentation; require municipal water suppliers to establish water conservation objectives, to improve efficiency over time, and to document improvement in efficiency before using additional portions of their inchoate water rights; and require water conservation rules to be adopted by the DOH, including those establishing performance measures (rather than requiring an advisory committee to study the effectiveness of water conservation efforts and make recommendations to the Legislature); place conditions on making the approved service area for a water system also the place of use for its waterright; no longer require certain water right documents to identify an annual consumptive quantity for a municipal water right as a condition for allowing the expansion of the number of hook-ups or population that may be served by the right; require water service by a public water system for a new industrial, commercial, or residential use to be consistent with land use and development plans and regulations and establishes a system's duty to serve new residential uses within the requirements of such plans and regulations and utility extension ordinances; require other state agencies to be consulted when DOH reviews water system plans; require a system to demonstrate in the regular updates of its plan that its new use of its inchoate rights will be consistent with meeting the time-lines and milestones in watershed plans; require public notice for new water system plans or major revisions to them; require DOE to prioritize its stream flow restoration efforts for watersheds where the use of inchoate rights may have greater effects; authorizes a pilot project in water resource inventory area number one for certain watershed agreements and allows inchoate rights to be transferred under such agreements; and require the bill to be implemented within existing funds (rather than requiring specific funding for it in the omnibus appropriations act).

The bill did not pass both chambers during the 2003 regular session, so the bill automatically returned to the Senate Rules Committee when the regular 105-day session adjourned on April 27, 2003.