PERMANENT RULES
Date of Adoption: June 10, 1999.
Purpose: To prioritize change applications over new applications when change applications meet certain criteria.
Citation of Existing Rules Affected by this Order: Amending chapter 173-532 WAC, Water resources management, Walla Walla basin.
Statutory Authority for Adoption: Chapters 43.21A, 43.27A, 90.03, 90.44, 90.54 RCW.
Adopted under notice filed as WSR 99-08-125 on April 7, 1999.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted at Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 1, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's Own Initiative: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted Using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0. Effective Date of Rule: Thirty-one days after filing.
June 10, 1999
Tom Fitzsimmons
Director
OTS-2643.2
NEW SECTION
WAC 173-532-085
Prioritizing change and transfer applications.
(1) The department recognizes that the many water resource planning documents and water supply studies which have been prepared for the Walla Walla River basin contain a significant amount of useful water management information. The department's general interpretation of these studies is that there is little water available within the basin for new appropriations. Consequently, the department has concluded that processing applications for changes or transfers of existing water rights is a more efficient and effective approach to managing water within the Walla Walla basin than processing applications for new appropriations.
(2) Therefore, an application for a change or transfer of an existing water right may be processed before applications for new water rights with senior filing dates proposing to use water from the same source or hydraulically connected sources of ground water, provided one or more of the following criteria are satisfied:
(a) The proposed transfer or change would result in the construction or expansion of a municipal water supply system consistent with its approved water system plan and that system will be managed according to specific water conservation principles negotiated with and agreed to by the department prior to approval of the proposed change or transfer.
(b) The proposed transfer or change would incorporate a watershed restoration component that would be specifically designed to protect or restore watershed health. Project proposals will be categorized and evaluated on the basis of either being riparian or nonriparian in nature. Consistent with the critical pathways methodology outlined in chapter 75.46 RCW, the department will use the criteria established by the Southeast regional salmon committee to evaluate and prioritize individual riparian project proposals within the basin. These criteria are:
(i) Listed ESA species affected, together with life-stage and use;
(ii) Priority limiting factors for the stream reach;
(iii) Cost-effectiveness;
(iv) Size of area affected;
(v) Relationship to other projects; and
(vi) Other considerations (e.g., protection versus restoration, innovative techniques, etc.).
(c) Nonriparian project proposals will be evaluated and prioritized using natural resource conservation service environmental enhancement criteria for nonriparian areas. The criteria to be used are:
(i) Erosion control/sediment reduction;
(ii) Upland habitat improvement; and
(iii) Wetland enhancement or development.
Based on these ranking criteria, project submittals scoring fifty percent or higher of the total points available will be considered to have significant environmental benefit and the associated application(s) will be evaluated out of processing priority sequence and ahead of other applications. Priority will first be given to applications with qualifying riparian project proposals. Where several competing applications within a category have met the fifty percent threshold, priority will be given to the proposals with the highest score.
Approval of any change application evaluated out of sequence through this process will be provisioned such that no final superseding certificate will issue unless and until the watershed project is installed and/or implemented to the satisfaction of the department. Failure to complete the watershed project may lead to enforcement against use of the changed water right for lack of compliance with conditions of the change approval.
Should evaluation criteria for riparian project proposals be developed and adopted by the Walla Walla and Columbia County habitat restoration committees, this rule will be amended to require use of those criteria instead of those of the Southeast regional salmon committee.
(3) It shall be the responsibility of the applicant to present any project proposal to the department, together with all supporting documentation, in order for the proposal to be considered for review under subsection (2)(a) or (b) of this section.
(4) Although subsection (2) of this section allows transfer or change applications to be processed before new applications for water from the same source or hydraulically connected ground water source that were filed earlier than the applications for transfer or change, the department is required by law to assure that the earlier applicants' opportunity to receive a permit would not be impaired if the transfer or change application is approved.
(5) The criteria in subsection (2) of this section are meant to supplement WAC 173-152-050 (3)(a), (criteria for priority processing of competing applications). Nothing in this chapter shall serve to supersede the requirements set forth through chapter 173-152 WAC (water right administration).
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