The Office of Columbia River will issue water rights from 9,400 of the 14,000 ac-ft of water supply OCR developed at Sullivan Lake. The remainder will be used to enhance instream flows to benefit fish. The 9,400 acre-feet will be split in half with 4,700 ac-ft going to new municipal/industrial and domestic water rights and 4,700 ac-feet allocated for all other types of water rights (i.e. irrigation, stockwater, etc). More information about the Sullivan Lake Project.

Application Details

Under state law (Chapter 83, 2011 Laws), water developed from the Sullivan Lake Project may only be allocated to applicants in six northeastern Washington counties: Douglas, Ferry, Lincoln, Okanogan, Pend Oreille, and Stevens. Additionally, OCR will apply the same allocation requirements developed for the Lake Roosevelt Incremental Storage Releases Project (Chapter 2.4.1.2 of the Lake Roosevelt Releases Supplemental EIS). These requirements include:

• Applicants must have the ability to physically capture the released water at their point of diversion or withdrawal along the Columbia River.
• Applicants who cannot physically capture the water from the river must have a proposed water use that would impact Columbia River stream flows within the same season or year without requiring mitigation of impacts in subsequent seasons or years.
• OCR will use a one-mile corridor running along the Columbia River as the surrogate for ground water users in bank storage. Ground water users outside the one-mile corridor can petition for inclusion if hydrogeologic evidence supports it.

Application processing will be based on the application priority date, and, due to water availability, some applicants may not receive a permit at this time. All permits will be provisioned to require the water user to install a fish screen at all diversions, meter and report water use, and may include other provisions as necessary. Processing an application includes an investigation to determine whether water can be permitted under state law, agency rules, and the program.

List of Applications

Ecology staff compiled a list of applications that appear to meet the water allocation requirements. The applicant names are as listed in Ecology’s files, although the current applicant may not be the same. A digital image of the applications are available for download by clicking on the Application Number link below. Some of the applicants listed below are also in line for water from the Lake Roosevelt Incremental Releases Project and may be granted permits for that water rather than Sullivan Lake water.

The list is current as of November 22, 2011. Applications may be removed from the list if, upon further investigation, they are deemed ineligible to receive water..