Opinion ID: 1405352
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Seasonal use under RCW 90.03.380

Text: The Vane water right supplied water to a cabin continuously used except in the winter. OWL maintains that under RCW 90.03.380 a transferred right must be limited to the season in which the right has been beneficially used. Long-settled western water law establishes that a water right is measured not only by quantity, but by time of use. This court gives weight to well-established principles of western water law. Okanogan Wilderness League, Inc., 133 Wash.2d at 783, 947 P.2d 732; Department of Ecology v. Grimes, 121 Wash.2d 459, 475, 852 P.2d 1044 (1993); Department of Ecology v. United States Bureau of Reclamation, 118 Wash.2d 761, 767-69, 827 P.2d 275 (1992). An appropriated water right is limited by the time and volume of the original beneficial use. `[U]niversally recognized as a part of the law of waters in the western states [is the rule] that a water right may be measured by time as well as by volume.' Neubert v. Yakima-Tieton Irrigation Dist., 117 Wash.2d 232, 238, 814 P.2d 199 (1991) (emphasis added) (quoting United States v. Ahtanum Irrigation Dist., 330 F.2d 897, 908 (9th Cir.1964)). Cases cited in Ahtanum, 330 F.2d at 915 n. 15, include: Clough v. Wing, 2 Ariz. 371, 378, 17 P. 453 (1888); Santa Paula Waterworks v. Peralta, 113 Cal. 38, 44, 45 P. 168 (1896); Cache La Poudre Reservoir Co. v. Water Supply & Storage Co., 25 Colo. 161, 53 P. 331 (1898); Uhrig v. Coffin, 72 Idaho 271, 275, 240 P.2d 480 (1952); Galiger v. McNulty, 80 Mont. 339, 354, 260 P. 401 (1927); see also City of Westminster v. Church, 167 Colo. 1, 445 P.2d 52 (1968); Rencken v. Young, 300 Or. 352, 711 P.2d 954 (1985). Seasonal use is relevant to a change application. As one commentator states: [T]iming changes which alter the length of the period or the season of the year during which water is diverted and used can cause impermissible third party effects. George A. Gould, Transfer of Water Rights, 29 Nat. Res. J. 457, 463 (1989). This is because water which has not been diverted and used during certain periods of time has been available during such periods for appropriation and use by others. While RCW 90.03.380 does not expressly mention a change in water rights from seasonal use to year-round use, such a proposed change is implicitly covered by the statute. Aside from the requirement that water rights must have been put to actual beneficial use before transfer or change, RCW 90.03.380 allows other changes in water rights so long as there is no detriment or injury to other water rights. The statute expressly allows, for example, a change in purpose of use. Purpose of use is often tied to time of use. For example, if the purpose of use is irrigation, the right will almost always be used seasonally. Domestic water use often is year-round use. Thus, a change in purpose of use may require that time of use be changed as well in order to put the water right to the proposed new use. However, as with other changes under RCW 90.03.380, a change in time of use may not be made which is detrimental to other appropriators' rights. If a change from seasonal to year-round use would cause injury, approval of a change in time of use should be denied or conditioned to protect other water rights holders by, for example, limiting the use for new purposes to the same season as the historical use. We conclude that the change in the Vane transfer was properly approved.