Washington Administrative Code › Title 173 - Ecology, Department of (See also Titles 197, 317, 372, and 508) › Chapter 173-539A - Upper Kittitas groundwater rule › Section 173-539A-030 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 24-14, July 15, 2024
The definitions provided below apply only to this
				chapter.
"Applicant"
includes the owner(s) of parcels that
				are the subject of a land use application, a person making a request for water
				budget neutral determination, or a person requesting a permit to appropriate
				public groundwater.
"Common ownership"
means any type or degree of
				legal or equitable property interest held by an applicant in any proximate
				parcel. Common ownership also includes a joint development arrangement between
				an applicant and any owner of a proximate parcel. A joint development
				arrangement is defined as involving significant voluntary joint activity and
				cooperation between the applicant and the owner(s) of one or more proximate
				parcels with respect to the development of parcels in question. Joint activity
				and cooperation that is customary or required by land use or other legal
				requirements does not itself constitute a joint development arrangement. A
				joint development arrangement may be evidenced by, but is not limited to,
				agreements for coordinated development and shared use of services or materials
				for permitting, design, engineering, architecture, plat or legal documents,
				financing, marketing, environmental review, clearing or preparing land, or
				construction (including road construction); covenants; agreements for common
				use of building materials, equipment, structures, facilities, lands, water,
				sewer, or other infrastructure.
"Consumptive use"
of a proposed withdrawal is the
				total depletion that the withdrawal has on any affected surface water
				bodies.
"Ecology"
means the department of ecology.
"Exemption"
or
"groundwater
				exemption"
means the exemption from the permit requirement for a
				withdrawal of groundwater provided under
				RCW
				   90.44.050.
"Existing use of the groundwater exemption"
means
				a use of groundwater under the authority of the exemption from permitting where
				water was:
(a) First regularly and
			 beneficially used prior to July 16, 2009; and
(b) The water right is perfected within the
			 five years following the first regular beneficial use for that purpose. Water
			 to serve a parcel that is part of a group use begun within five years of the
			 date water was first regularly and beneficially used on one or more parcels in
			 the group is an existing use if the group use remains within the limit of the
			 permit exemption.
"Group use"
means use of the groundwater exemption
				for two or more parcels. A group use includes use of the exemption for all
				parcels of a proposed development. It further includes use of the exemption for
				all parcels that are proximate and held in common ownership with a proposed new
				development. If a parcel that is part of a group use is later divided into
				multiple parcels more than five years following the first use, the new uses of
				the exemption on the resulting multiple parcels will be considered a separate
				group use distinct from the original group.
"Land use application"
means an application to
				Kittitas County requesting a:
Subdivision;
Short subdivision;
Large lot subdivision;
Administrative or exempt segregation;
Binding site plan; or
Performance based cluster plat.
"New use of the groundwater exemption"
means a
				valid permit-exempt use of groundwater begun on or after July 16, 2009. When an
				existing group use is expanded to serve a parcel in the future, the expanded
				use is a new use if it begins more than five years after the date water was
				first regularly and beneficially used for that purpose on any parcel in the
				group.
"Parcel"
means any parcel, land, lot, tract or
				other unit of land.
"Proximate"
means all parcels that have at least
				one of the following attributes:
Share any common boundary; or
Are separated only by roads, easements, or parcels in common
				ownership; or
Are within five hundred feet of each other at the nearest
				point.
"Proximate shortplat"
means a shortplat that would
				be considered a group use with another subdivision or shortplat.
"Regular beneficial use"
means a use of water
				under the groundwater permit exemption that is recurring or functioning at
				fixed, uniform, or normal intervals and is done in conformity with established
				usages, rules, or discipline.
"Total water supply available"
means the amount of
				water available in any year from natural flow of the Yakima River, and its
				tributaries, from storage in the various government reservoirs on the Yakima
				watershed and from other sources, to supply the contract obligations of the
				United States to deliver water and to supply claimed rights to the use of water
				on the Yakima River, and its tributaries, heretofore recognized by the United
				States.
"Upper Kittitas County"
is the area of Kittitas
				County delineated in WAC
				173-539A-990.
"Water budget neutral project"
means an
				appropriation or project where withdrawals of public groundwater are proposed
				in exchange for placement of other water rights into the trust water right
				program that are at least equivalent to the amount of consumptive
				use.
Statutory Authority:
				  RCW
				  90.54.050 and chapter 43.27A RCW. 11-01-163
				  (Order 08-12), § 173-539A-030, filed 12/22/10, effective
				  1/22/11.