HB 2310: Municipal water suppliers

Summary

• Requires the Department of Ecology (DOE), for all applications for change of the place or use of a water right, to limit consideration of the application to only the scope and validity of the specific portion of the underlying water right that is subject to the application.
• Provides three instances when the DOE’s scope of consideration on change applications must be limited to whether or not the applied for change will adversely impact a senior water rights holder.
• Changes the definition of when water is being used for a municipal supply purpose from when the water can be shown to be actually beneficially used for specified municipal supply purposes to when it is possible to document the intent to beneficially use the water for those purposes.
• Allows, with limits, the pooling of municipal water rights from the same groundwater aquifer by a public water utility that holds multiple rights in the same aquifer.
• Dedicates 20 percent of the revenue generated by the tax on water distribution businesses to be split between the Water Rights Processing Account managed by the DOE and the Safe Drinking Water Account managed by the Department of Health.

From the House Bill Analysis 2012 (HB 2310), written by the Legislature's nonpartisan staff. Read the full report ↗