Stream, Well Users Must Sign Up State Expects Thousands To Be Added To Registry

The state is reopening its registry for people who draw water from streams and wells, giving the thousands of people using water illegally a chance to get back in the state’s good graces.

State law requires a permit for people who take water out of a stream or have a well that pumps more than 5,000 gallons a day. In the past, the state has ordered some people to halt water withdrawals if they didn’t have permits, but thousands draw water illegally.

Now the Department of Ecology is reopening the registry for homeowners, irrigators and others to file water claims and have their rights recognized.

The state first asked unlicensed water users to register and claim a formal water right in 1969. That was part of an attempt to document water use and fend off efforts to divert Northwest water to California.

That call brought in 165,000 claims over five years, some of which have yet to be fully processed, department policy analyst Ken Slattery said.

Subsequent calls in 1979 and 1985 each netted a “few dozen” claims.

This year, the Legislature passed and Gov. Gary Locke signed a measure calling for additional registrations.

The target is water users who claim a historic right to water dating back before June 7, 1917, when the state’s surface-water code was enacted. It also applies to consumers of water from wells whose use began before June 7, 1945, when state laws regulating ground-water use took effect.

Before those dates, water users could establish a right simply by taking the water and posting a notice of what they were doing. Once the codes were enacted, state permits were required for both types of water use.

The new registration period opens Sept. 1 and ends June 30, 1998. Slattery said the agency expects anywhere from 2,000 to 50,000 applications.

If more than 2,000 are received, he said, the agency may have to curtail processing of applications for new or altered water-right permits just to handle the registry of old, unlicensed ones.

Some longtime water users could lose their rights, state officials say.

If a new registrant’s claim conflicts with an earlier applicant and there is a shortage of available water, the earlier applicant could win out, officials said.

That way, those who signed up in the past will be rewarded for following the rules, said Rep. Dave Mastin, R-Walla Walla, a sponsor of the measure setting up the new registration process.