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Water Right Tracking System (WRTS) - Water Right Applications by County

Ecology uses the Water Right Tracking System (WRTS) to track the progress of water right applications and permits.  The following is a snapshot of current water right applications pending with Ecology, organized by County and Water Resource Inventory Area (WRIA).  The information is updated on a monthly basis (first Monday of every month).

Choose a county of interest from the following list (see the Key on this page for explanation of report fields):

Link to County/WRIA map

Note:  This database does not constitute an official record of water right documents on file with Ecology.  There are no warranties, expressed or implied, that this data is complete or up to date.  Consult with the nearest Ecology Regional Office for access to the official records.

KEY (to column headings on reports)

WRIA Code: Washington state is divided into 62 Water Resource Inventory Areas, known as WRIAs, based on geographic drainage systems.

Control number (reading from left to right): C refers to change, G refers to a ground water application, S to a surface water application, and R for reservoir; the first number refers to which regional office the application was filed: 1=Northwest regional office in Bellevue; 2=Southwest regional office in Lacey; 3=Eastern regional office in Spokane; and 4=Central regional office in Yakima; the last five digits are the control number assigned to a new application.

Business/Person Name: the name of the person or business applying for the water right; this could be the property owner, or a developer, or some other involved party.

Priority Date: the date the application was filed with the Department of Ecology.

Q(i) (Instantaneous Quantity): the maximum diversion or withdrawal rate requested by the applicant; in cubic feet per second for surface water and gallons per minute for ground water.

Q(a) (Acre Feet/Year): the annual volume or quantity of water requested by the applicant; one acre foot per year is equal to one foot of water over one acre of land or 325,850 gallons of water.

Purposes: how the water will be used - categories include:

• CO-- Cooling for industrial purposes
• CI-- Commercial and Industrial Manufacturing (includes food processing and packaging, sand and gravel processing, asphalt plant, metal processing and manufacturing, pulp and paper manufacturing, aquatic plant culture, petroleum refining, car washes, and laundries)
• DG-- Domestic General (use of water for all domestic uses not specifically defined in the water right record or not defined by the other specific domestic use categories. Includes sewage treatment, farm supply, and laboratory use)
• DM-- Domestic Multiple (more than one dwelling, i.e. motels, trailer courts, campgrounds, parks, schools, port districts, public utility districts, diking and drainage districts, water districts, reclamation districts, and counties, none of which are under municipal control)
• DS-- Domestic Single (one dwelling with lawn and garden, up to one-half acre)
• DY-- Dairy
• EN-- Environmental Quality (includes pollution control, dust control, flood control, or any water use which improves or maintains the quality of the environment)
• FP-- Frost Protection (frost protection other than cranberries)
• FR-- Fire Protection (includes sprinkling log storage facilities)
• FS-- Fish Propagation (includes water service to ponds, reservoirs, hatcheries, and all other facilities involved in the overall purpose of fish propagation)
• HE-- Heat Exchange (use of such equipment as heat pumps, refrigeration equipment, and other cooling devices)
• HP-- Heat Protection For Crops (Water used during the summer months to protect such crops as apples and cranberries from the heat.)
• HW-- Highway (maintenance and construction)
• IR-- Irrigation (includes cranberry farming, lawn/garden watering with definite acreage, golf courses, greenhouses, etc.)
• Iflow-- Instream flow
• IT-- Municipal Intertie System
• MI-- Mining (includes washing coal, dredge mining, and hydraulic mining)
• MU-- Domestic Municipal (serves general domestic, commercial, and industrial needs of an incorporated municipality, i.e. cities, towns, and outlying areas)
• NoID'd-- No purpose identified
• OT-- Other (No purpose identified)
• PO-- Power (includes hydro-electric, hydraulic ram, and thermo-electric)
• RE-- Recreation and Beautification (includes beautifying private and public grounds and supplying water to swimming pools, boating ponds, etc)
• RW-- Railway (use of water to serve railway equipment and facilities)
• ST-- Stock Watering (includes domestic uses of water for dairy/cattle farms, game bird farming, poultry farming, and fur-bearing animal farming)
• SR-- Storage (Storage of water)
• TW-P-- Trust Water-Permanent (Water in a permanent trust)
• TW-T-- Trust Water-Temporary (Water in a temporary trust.)
• UN-- Unknown
• WL-- Wildlife Propagation (includes water to service non-domesticated animals such as birds, game and non-game species)

Source: what source of water the supply is coming from. For surface water, this states the name of the water involved (river, stream, spring, etc.). For ground water, this states the type of source (well, tunnel, trench, etc.).

TRS: township, range, section--a geographic locator system used in the Public Land Survey System that specifies a location on the earth's surface.

Quad: quadrangles, the smallest legal subdivision of a particular section.

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