I am very excited about co-hosting this year’s annual Water Law in Washington seminar by Law Seminars International. We have a stellar line up of professional speakers and will cover numerous current issues of interest to water law practitioners, water users and resource managers. Beginning with an optional “Water Law 101” presentation on the fundamentals of water law, the conference will have a special focus…
Author: Tom Pors
Tom is a Speaker at the PNWS-AWWA Spring 2015 Conference in Bellevue
Tom has been invited by the Pacific Northwest Section of the American Water Works Association to speak on the subject of water rights mitigation at their Spring 2015 conference in Bellevue. His talk “Mitigation as a Tool to Facilitate Water Rights Permitting” is scheduled for Thursday, April 30th at 1:30 p.m. He will be on a panel with other experts…
Tom will be co-chairing the Annual LSI Water Law Seminar on July 27 & 28 in Seattle
Tom has been a frequent speaker at Law Seminar International’s annual water law seminar, including 1996-98, 2008, 2011-12, and 2014. This year he will co-chair the seminar on July 27 & 28, which will feature panels on drought year water management, challenges to instream flow rules, rural water supply strategies, the intersection of water rights and land use, and science vs. the precautionary principle, in…
Appeals Court Reverses GMHB Ruling re Whatcom County in Hirst Case: Permit-Exempt Wells Not Governed by Nooksack Instream Flow Rule
Whatcom County has won its appeal in a closely watched case at the intersection of water rights and land use law. Division One of the Washington Court of Appeals held that the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board erroneously interpreted the Nooksack Basin Instream Flow Rule, Chapter 173-501 WAC, and reversed the Board’s rulings that Whatcom County was out of…
Supreme Court Upholds Constitutionality of Municipal Water Law (Again)
In what appears to have been an agonizing 6-3 decision by the Washington Supreme Court (it took over 20 months to issue a decision after oral argument), the municipal water law of 2003 has been upheld against an as-applied constitutional challenge. The new decision in Cornelius v. Wash. Dept. of Ecology, Wash. State Univ., and Wash. Pol. Ctrl. Hearings Bd.,…
Supreme Court Upholds Constitutionality of Municipal Water Law (Again)
In what appears to have been an agonizing 6-3 decision by the Washington Supreme Court (it took over 20 months to issue a decision after oral argument), the municipal water law of 2003 (MWL)[i] has been upheld against an as-applied constitutional challenge. The new decision in Cornelius v. Ecology[ii] resolves substantial uncertainty about the legal effect of the MWL as…
Does Your Public Water System Need a Professional Water Right Assessment?
When was the last time your municipal water system hired an experienced water rights attorney to review and assess the scope, validity and status of its water rights portfolio? If you don’t know, or its been over 10 years, your water rights may be at risk. Public water systems have a duty to preserve and protect their water rights for…
Ecology Director Denies Petition to Repeal Skagit Instream Flow Rule
On January 15, 2015, Ecology Director Maia Bellon denied the latest petition to amend or repeal the 2001 Skagit Basin Instream Flow Rule (Chapter 173-503 WAC), which had been reinstated as a result of the Washington Supreme Court’s decision in Swinomish Indian Tribal Community v. Ecology. The petition was filed in NOvember 2014 by attorney Bill Clarke on behalf of a group of realtors,…
How Messed Up is Washington’s Water Allocation System After Swinomish Indian Tribal Community v. Ecology?
Swinomish Indian Tribal Community v. Ecology is a major water rights decision by the Washington Supreme Court that is impacting watershed planning, water rights permitting and development in rural areas. I have been practicing water rights law in Washington State since 1990. I have witnessed how the state’s water allocation policy has been misapplied by setting minimum instream flows before allocating water…
Validity of Dungeness Watershed Management Rule Challenged in new Lawsuit
A Petition for Declaratory Judgment has been filed in Thurston County Superior Court by Olympic Resource Protection Council (ORPC) to determine the validity of the Dungeness Watershed Management Rule. ORPC has been critical of the Dungeness Rule because of its impacts on Clallam County residents, including widespread uncertainty about water availability, inconsistency with local land use authority, and unnecessary costs on development and use…
Ecology Issues Rural Water Supply Strategy Report
Since the water availability crisis in the Skagit basin erupted after the Supreme Court’s decision in Swinomish v. Ecology, Ecology held several workgroup meetings with tribal representatives and other stakeholders to develop and assess potential solutions to the agency’s challenges with instream flow regulations and water availability. Ecology issued its report on this effort in November 2014, entitled “FINDING RURAL DOMESTIC WATER…