Washington Administrative Code › Title 173 - Ecology, Department of (See also Titles 197, 317, 372, and 508) › Chapter 173-150 - Protection of withdrawal facilities associated with groundwater rights › Section 173-150-030 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 24-14, July 15, 2024
For the purposes of this chapter the following definitions
				shall apply:
(1) "Department" means
			 the Washington state department of ecology.
(2) "Groundwater right" means an
			 authorization to use groundwater established pursuant to
			 chapter
			 90.44 RCW, state common or
			 statutory law existing prior to the enactment of
			 chapter
			 90.44 RCW, or federal
			 law.
(3) "Withdrawal facilities"
			 means and includes any well, infiltration trench or other excavation that is
			 drilled, cored, bored, washed, driven, dug, jetted or otherwise constructed,
			 together with the casing, screen, pump, pump column, motor and related
			 equipment, which is used for the withdrawal of groundwater.
(4) "Aquifer" means any geologic formation
			 that will yield water to a well or other withdrawal works in sufficient
			 quantity for beneficial use.
(5)
			 "Groundwater" means all waters that exist beneath the land surface or beneath
			 the bed of any stream, lake or reservoir, or other body of surface water,
			 whatever may be the geological formation or structure in which such water
			 stands or flows, percolates or otherwise moves.
(6) "Contamination" means an impairment of
			 the beneficial use of groundwater arising from the modification of the quality
			 thereof by the introduction of organisms, chemical, organic or radioactive
			 material or of heated or cooled water.
(7) "Significant modification" means the
			 deepening or reaming of a well, lowering the pump bowls by adding lengths of
			 pump column, adding water quality treatment devices, or other similar
			 modifications, where the total cost or value of such modifications exceeds (1)
			 $500.00 for domestic, stock or other water withdrawal facilities withdrawing
			 less than 5,000 gallons per day, or (2) $2500.00 for all other
			 facilities.
(8) "Qualifying
			 withdrawal facilities" means those withdrawal facilities which in the opinion
			 of the department constitute a reasonable development of the aquifer. A
			 reasonable development must satisfy the following requirements:
(a) The withdrawal facilities must be
			 constructed in accordance with chapter 18.104 RCW (Water Well Construction Act)
			 and chapter 173-160 WAC (Minimum standards for construction and maintenance of
			 water wells) and the water right permit provisions, if any, or the applicable
			 state laws and the regulations of the department which were in effect at the
			 time of construction of the facilities.
(b) The withdrawal facilities must have a
			 depth of aquifer penetration which will allow the withdrawal of water from a
			 reasonable or feasible pumping lift;
(c) The withdrawal facilities must be able to
			 accommodate a reasonable variation in seasonal pumping water levels;
(d) The withdrawal facilities, including the
			 pumping facilities, must be properly sized to the ability of the aquifer to
			 produce water.