Is it the Columbia River Basin Water Supply Development Program or the Columbia River Basin Water Management Program?

Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill (ESSHB) 2860 was passed and signed into law in February 2006. Soon after passage of the bill, the Governor’s Office and Ecology distributed a press release and fact sheet that described the program to be developed by Ecology pursuant to the requirements of the bill as the Columbia River Basin Water Management Program. This title was based on the introductory portion of the session law which described the bill as “AN ACT relating to water resource management in the Columbia River Basin . . . .” The Columbia River Basin Water Management Program title has subsequently been used in numerous documents and correspondence related to implementation of the legislation.

Ecology recognizes that Section 1 of ESSHB2860 declared that a “Columbia river basin water supply development program” is needed, and that some parties consider this to be a more appropriate title for the program than the management program title selected by Ecology. The justification for their position is found in another portion of Section 1 of the bill that directed Ecology to “aggressively pursue development of water supplies to benefit both instream and out-of-stream uses.” However, the bill also required Ecology to undertake a variety of other activities related to the development of water supplies including:

• Administering the Columbia River Basin Water Supply Development Account
• (Section 2);
• Entering into voluntary regional agreements, including harmonization of such agreements with adopted watershed plans (Section 4)
• Developing inventories of water conservation and storage projects in consultation with interested parties and water supply and demand forecasts (Section 5); and
• Establishing and updating a Columbia River Mainstem Water Resource Information System that provides the information necessary for effective mainstem water resources planning and management (Section 6).

In view of the broad range of implementation activities required under the bill, Ecology considers the Columbia River Basin Water Management Program to be an appropriate title for the program. However, other parties may choose to use the title Columbia River Basin Water Supply Development Program title. Regardless of which title is used, ESSHB 2860, codified as Chapter 90.90 RCW, clearly establishes the principal objective of the program as being to aggressively pursue development of water supplies to benefit both instream and out-of-stream uses. The program being developed and implemented by Ecology is closely adhering to this objective.