Click here to skip to main content.
scenic picture from Washington state
Subjects › Environment › Water Rights › What is the Good News and Bad News About Your City's Water Rights? 25 Questions to Start the Search

Robert E. Mack - What is the Good News and Bad News About Your City's Water Rights? 25 Questions to Start the Search

What is the Good News and Bad News About Your City's Water Rights? 25 Questions to Start the Search

Prepared by
Robert E. Mack
Smith Alling Lane
1102 Broadway, #403
Tacoma, WA 98402
(253) 627-1091

for the Association of Washington Cities Annual Conference 2001 Panel on Small City Water Woes: Looking Ahead

Never before have Washington's municipal water rights been subject to more challenges and questions. Court rulings, administrative interpretations, and threatened third party lawsuits have raised, and may raise, questions about the validity and extent of your city's water rights. In such an environment, it is prudent for any city or town that is a water purveyor to do an inventory of its rights. It is important to know what your rights are, in order to protect or improve them. The following questions are a beginning point. Your answers may lead to further questions.

1. Is your water supplied by your town or city, or by another water purveyor?

2. If by another purveyor, do you know details of its water right?

3. Do you have one water right, or multiple water rights?

4. If you have multiple rights, are their terms consistent with each other, e.g., as to place of use?

5. Is your right to surface or ground water?

6. If it is a ground water right, is it in hydraulic continuity with a stream?

7. What is its priority date (the date of first application or claim)?

8. If your surface water right predates 1917, or your ground water right predates 1945, did you file a claim after 1969 with the Department of Ecology (DOE)?

9. Has the place of diversion (surface) or point of withdrawal (ground) been changed since the first date of use?

10. Was the change in place of diversion or point of withdrawal approved by DOE?

11. Does your water come from a stream or aquifer in hydraulic continuity with a stream or aquifer used, or claimed for use, by a recognized Indian tribe?

12. Do you divert or withdraw water in greater annual volumes than stated in your permit, certificate, or claim?

13. Do you divert or withdraw water in greater instantaneous volumes than stated in your permit, certificate, or claim?

14. If the answers to questions 12 and 13 are "no", do you divert or withdraw water in smaller volumes than stated in your permit, certificate, or water right?

15. Do you have a copy of the report of examination originally issued for your permit?

16. If so, are the statements in the report of examination consistent with the terms of your permit?

17. Is your water use fully consistent with the "purpose of use" stated in your permit or certificate?

18. What is the "place of use" stated in your permit or certificate?

19. Is the stated "place of use" the same as the "service area" in your comprehensive water service plan, as approved by the Department of Health (DOH)?

20. Are your "place of use" and "service area" consistent with your Growth Management Act comprehensive plan and capital facilities plan?

21. If your "place of use" is stated as "the city of ________," have you annexed areas to the city since the date of the permit's issuance?

22. Do you serve water outside your boundaries, on either a wholesale or retail basis?

23. If you have more than one water right, are their stated "places of use" identically or differently stated?

24. If you serve a wholesale customer, where is your place of transfer?

25. Do you exchange water with any other water purveyor, even on an emergency basis?