http://www.heraldnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008933826360

Everett, Wash.

Published: Thursday, June 12, 2008

State's water law flawed, judge
declares

Associated Press

SEATTLE -- A judge has declared key parts of a law governing
water usage in Washington state unconstitutional.

The Municipal Water Law has been controversial since it passed in 2003, with
environmentalists, the state and utilities disagreeing about the Legislature's
intent. Generally, it was designed to provide more certainty and flexibility
for cities, utilities and developers that draw water from streams and aquifers
while also requiring more conservation.

Critics said it would exacerbate water shortages by allowing growing cities and
developers to cash in on water rights that had long gone unused, at the expense
of farmers, others with current water rights and fish habitat.

In an oral ruling Wednesday, King County Superior Court Judge Jim Rogers said
the Legislature overstepped its bounds by redefining developers as
"municipal water suppliers" and by saying that water rights granted
under a process later struck down by the Supreme Court remain valid.

He upheld five sections the law that had also been challenged.

Environmental groups called it a technical, but extremely important, decision.

Historically, to obtain a right to a certain amount of water drawn from a
stream or aquifer, a party had to put that water to good use, such as by
serving a home or irrigating a field; if the water right holder didn't use the
water, he risked losing the right to use it.

But many cities and developers plan for excess capacity, to accommodate growth,
and for a time the state granted water rights based on how much a system's
pumps and pipes could handle, rather than how much was actually needed. In
1998, the state Supreme Court found that practice illegal. The Municipal Water
Law in 2003 told cities and developers that water rights they had been granted
under "pumps and pipes" remained valid.

© 2008The Daily Herald
Co., Everett, WA

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