Publication Summary

Water banking is an important water management tool for local watershed planners around the state who want to use banking in their areas. Watershed planning is driving the need for clarification of the law that would allow water right transfers as a way for providing water for new uses. Currently, water banking is limited to the Yakima Basin where water has been a scarce resource for decades. The authority to operated Yakima′s water bank comes from the Trust Water Rights Statute (RCW 90.42). In 2003, the trust water rights statute was amended to authorize Ecology to use the trust water program to do water banking in the Yakima River basin. Presently, the statutory language is ambiguous as to whether the trust water program could be used to establish water banking in other parts of the state.