Overview and History
Every farmer, business, and municipality knows the importance of having a reliable and legal supply of water. Whether you are using a well, surface water system, or sharing a water system with your neighbor, it’s vital that you understand your water rights.
What are your legal rights?
How much water are you entitled too?
What happens if there is a discrepancy between what you are doing and what your water right authorization allows?
The Nooksack basin has been a lighting rod for water supply issues for decades. Many water right holders are not in compliance with their water rights, and several important legal cases have shined a spotlight on how the State of Washington manages water.
In the fall of 2020, after decades of unresolved water use conflict in the Nooksack basin, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) announced they would proceed with the formal adjudication process in the Nooksack basin (WRIA 1) in Northwest Washington.
What is an Adjudication?
An adjudication is a binding court Decree by the state whose end-result is a comprehensive inventory of valid water rights. Put in simple terms it means that an Adjudication Court, with support from the Department of Ecology, will be conducting a detailed review of all water uses in the watershed and right-sizing each water right to valid water uses.
The Entire Adjudication Process will Take Years
Ecology and Adjudication Courts have adjudicated dozens of watersheds in Washington in the last 100 years. However, the most recent modern adjudication of this scale was last done in the Yakima Basin, which took 42 years to complete. While the process to validate is long and can be costly to individual users, the benefits are also great. The Yakima Adjudication paved the way for:
Increases in value of water rights and property by removing uncertainty.
Creating cooperative relationships that led to the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan, a multi-billion dollar watershed recovery plan
Fostering water banks to allow water to move more freely between those that have surplus and those that need more supply.
However, for water right holders, this detailed and public review of your property history can also be a scary proposition. Are you in compliance with your water right? Is a portion of your right subject to relinquishment (aka “use-it-or-lose-it”)? Understanding how your water right is likely to fare in the upcoming adjudication will help reduce your risk.
Who is Affected?
Any water right claimant within the Nooksack Basin, which includes water rights holders and water users with permit-exempt wells, will be required to file a Court Claim and defend their water right in the Nooksack Adjudication. If the Yakima Adjudication is a guide, there will be a “major claimant” pathway for large water users like cities, irrigation districts, state and federal agencies, and tribes. Everyone else will be treated separately and potentially grouped by subbasins. Ecology will likely issue guidance at the start of the adjudication to clarify this process.
