8009

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8009
• Author: Natural Resources Law Center.
• Title: Restoring the Waters.
• USFW Year: 1997.
• USFW - Doc Type: Boulder, CO.
• Copyright Material: YES

_ b
In 1991, the Washington
Legislature authorized a trust
water rights program to be
managed by the Washington
Department of Ecology:
^ The state may acquire all or
portions of existing water rights
from any person or entity, on a
voluntary basis, to provide water
for presently unmet needs and
emerging needs.
^ Trust water rights may not be
acquired by condemnation antl
may not cause the involuntary
impairment of any existing water
rights.
^ The state may acquire trust water
rights by purchase or gift, or by
providing assistance in financing
water conservation projects.
Trust Water Rights Program, Washington
Like many western states, Washington is
experimenting with ways to improve
instream conditions for fisheries. In areas
where streams are overappropriated by
existing consumptive use rights for
irrigated agriculture, one prospect for
improvement lies with transferring some of
the senior agricultural water rights to
instream uses. In Washington these
instream rights are called "trust water
rights."
Despite passage of the Trust Water Rights
statute in 199"l and a 1989 statute estab-
lishing aYakima River basin trust water
rights program, the first trust water right
was just nearing approval in May 1997.
For this first trust water right, the Liberty
Bell Corporation has donated saved water
to he held by the State of Washington and
dedicated to instream flow enhancement in
Little Boulder Creek and the Methow
River. In these transactions, no money
changed hands to effect the acquisition of
water for instream purposes. Instead, the
reallocation of water to protect instream
flows was accomplished as a settlement of
a challenge to the state's decision to
approve a water right permit application.
Little Boulder Creek Flows
Liberty Bell's 1894 irrigation water right,
dating from well before the Washington
Water Code was enacted in 1917, was used
to irrigate 45 acres of hay pasture. Water
was brought to the property through an
unlined, gravity-flow diversion ditch and
then used to flood irrigate pasture. The
Liberty Bell property has been undergoing
a transformation over the past 20 years
from farm property to a residential
development. In 1987, Liberty Bell applied
to the Department of Ecology for authori-
zation to withdraw water from two wells
on its property to supply winter domestic
water (December 1 through March .31) for
10
63 homes. Although the state granted a
permit authorizing the Liberty Bell domes-
tic water withdrawal, the Yakama Indian
Nation appealed the decision. The state,
the Yakamas and Liberty Bell then began a
negotiation process to settle the dispute.
The settlement provides that the state
grant Liberty Bell a permit to withdraw
winter domestic water from its wells. In
return, Liberty Bell agreed to completely
eliminate its mile-long diversion ditch and
obtain both its irrigation water and its
domestic water from the wells. Liberty Bell
will also take 29 of its 45 acres out of
irrigation and fallow them permanently.
The remaining 16 irrigated acres will be
converted to an efficient modern sprinkler
system. Water savings will accrue from
both the permanent fallowing and the
improved efficiency on the remaining
acreage. Liberty Bell will sign over the
saved water to the state for instream flows.
The Department of Ecology will issue a
certificate of trust water right in the name
of the State of Washington to protect the
saved water as instream flow. The right
will have the same priority date as the
original 1894 irrigation water right, the
oldest diversionary right from Little
Boulder Creek, and its May 15th through
October 19th season of use.
The Liberty Bell trust water right will
protect 0.58 cubic foot per second (cfs),
for a total of ] 81.8 acre-feet per year (af/
yr) of water flow in Little Boulder Creek
from the location of the historic Liberty
Bell diversion ditch downstream to the
confluence of the creek with the Methow
River, a distance of about three quarters of
a mile. This quantity represents all of the
water savings associated with:
^ Eliminating the evapotranspiration of
the pasture crop on the 29 fallowed
acres;
Eliminating the water loss associated
with the inefficient flood irrigation
practices historically used on those 29
acres;