Washington § 90.38.010 - Definitions.

The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(1) "Department" means the department of ecology.

(2) "Integrated plan" means the Yakima river basin integrated water resource management plan developed through a consensus-based approach by a diverse work group of representatives of the Yakama Nation, federal, state, county, and city governments, environmental organizations, and irrigation districts, which is to be implemented consistent with congressional Yakima river basin water enhancement project enactments and for which the final programmatic environmental impact statement was made available for review through public notice published in the federal register (77 FR 12076 (2012)).

(3) "Net water savings" means the amount of water that through hydrological analysis is determined to be conserved and usable for other purposes without impairing existing water rights, reducing the ability to deliver water, or reducing the supply of water that otherwise would have been available to other water users.

(4) "Trust water right" means that portion of an existing water right, constituting net water savings, that is no longer required to be diverted for beneficial use due to the installation of a water conservation project that improves an existing system. The term "trust water right" also applies to any other water right acquired by the department under this chapter for management in the Yakima river basin trust water rights program.

(5) "Water conservation project" means any project funded to further the purposes of this chapter and that achieves physical or operational improvements of efficiency in existing systems for diversion, conveyance, or application of water under existing water rights.

(6) "Water supply facility permit and funding milestone" means a date prior to June 30, 2035, when required permits have been approved, and funding has been secured to begin construction on one or more water supply facilities designed to provide at least 214,000 acre feet of water to be used for instream and out-of-stream uses.

(7) "Yakima river basin water enhancement project" means a series of congressional enactments, originally initiated by the United States congress in 1979 under P.L. 96-162, with subsequent federal implementing legislation being passed in 1984 under section 109 of P.L. 98-381 to promote fish passage improvements, and in 1994 under P.L. 103-434, as amended by P.L. 105-62 in 1997 and P.L. 106-372 in 2000, to promote water conservation, water supply, habitat, and stream enhancement improvements in the Yakima river basin.

Effective date—2025 c 285: See note following RCW 90.38.110.