Tom will be speaking on the subject of “GMA and Water” on a panel with Sharon Haensly, attorney for the Squaxin Island Tribe, at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, November 15, 2019. The 2-day seminar starts on November 14th at the Seattle Hilton Hotel. Tom’s specific topic will include an update on ESSB 6091 remedies to the Hirst and Foster decisions and…
Tag: rural water supply
Bassett Case Set for Oral Argument
I have the honor of representing the appellants in a legal challenge to the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Dungeness River Basin instream flow rule, Magdalena Bassett, et al., v. Washington State Department of Ecology, Case # 51221-1-II. After a wait of over a year, the case is finally set for oral argument in Division II of the Washington Court…
Legislature Passes Hirst and Foster Fix, Authorizes $300 Million for Streamflow Restoration
After last year’s legislative deadlock that failed to adopt either a fix to rural water availability or a capital budget, the Washington State Legislature made quick work of a compromise bill, ESSB 6091,[1] which was the first bill signed into law in the 2018 session. The bill has many features, including: It requires updates to several watershed plans and new…
Tom Pors will be Speaking at the WSBA ELUL Section Mid-Year on May 11
Tom has been invited by the Washington State Bar Association’s Environmental & Land Use Law Section to speak at its mid-year meeting about the newly passed Hirst fix and streamflow enhancement bill, ESSB 6091. He will be on a panel with Yakama Indian Nation tribal attorneys Shona Voelchers and Kate Marckworth. The title for this one-hour seminar is “ESSB 6091: Hirst…
The Place for Ethics in the Resolution of Hirst and Other Water Conflicts in Washington State
This year’s legislative efforts to restore groundwater availability after the Washington Supreme Court’s decision in Whatcom County v. Hirst resulted in a partisan deadlock that also side-lined the state’s $4 billion capital budget. Economic impacts of the deadlock are now estimated to run to $11 billion and cause a $37 billion decrease in the value of undeveloped land,[1] which will…
Bassett Case Appealed to Supreme Court
On January 3, 2017, I filed a notice of appeal in the Bassett v. Ecology case on behalf of plaintiffs Magdalena and Denman Bassett, Judy Stirton, and Olympic Resource Protection Council. This sends their challenge of the Dungeness River Instream Flow Rule to the Washington Supreme Court. The next step is filing a Statement of Grounds for Direct Review by the…
Whatcom County v. Hirst Decision Expands Instream Flow Protection to Counties under GMA
The Washington Supreme Court’s decision in Whatcom County v. Hirst,[1] will significantly impact rural water availability by requiring Washington counties to ignore exceptions for permit-exempt wells in many of the state’s instream flow protection rules, causing considerable and unwarranted hardship to rural property owners. The decision expands the Court’s already extreme protection of regulatory instream flows by requiring counties to…
Opening Brief filed in Bassett v. Ecology: Validity of Dungeness Instream Flow Rule Challenged
On July 29, 2016, Tom filed the Plaintiffs’ Opening Brief in the first judicial appeal under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) of a Department of Ecology instream flow rule. The case, Magdalena Bassett, et. al, v. Department of Ecology, alleges that Ecology’s Dungeness River instream flow rule (Chapter 173-518 WAC) violates the APA and exceeds Ecology’s statutory authority on numerous…
Is the Fox v. Skagit County case heading to Supreme Court?
One fallout from the Swinomish v. Ecology decision in 2013 was the Department of Ecology’s instruction to Skagit County that it could no longer accept permit-exempt wells in the Skagit basin as proof of an adequate water supply for building permits. RIchard and Marnie Fox purchased and subdivided a property in Skagit County near the Town of Lyman before 2000,…
Save the Date – KCBA CLE on March 31, 2016
Tom will be speaking at a King County Bar Association CLE on March 31, 2016 in Seattle. The half-day seminar covers environmental issues involving drought and fire, and also features Mitch Friedman of Conservation Northwest, Dr. Crystal Raymond of Seattle City Light, Peter Dykstra of Plauche and Carr LLP, and Sharon Haensly of the Squaxin Island Tribe. Tom’s one-hour topic is “The Impact…
Supreme Court Bruises Department of Ecology in Foster Opinion
On October 8, 2015, the Washington Supreme Court reversed a water right permit issued by the Department of Ecology (Ecology) to the City of Yelm. Two months later, the consequences of this decision are still being sorted out by Ecology, the Attorney General’s Office, and stakeholders. In the meantime, the State’s water rights permitting program has gone off the rails…
Potential Solutions to Washington State’s Post-Swinomish Instream Flow/Rural Water Supply Dilemma
Introduction Department of Ecology officials and stakeholders have been meeting publicly for the last year to discuss post-Swinomish water allocation solutions for rural areas, but their efforts have been stymied by the lack of consensus on legislative or other solutions.[2] New ideas need to be explored and vetted to move beyond common misconceptions and a dysfunctional status quo. The state’s…
Potential Solutions to Washington State’s Post-Swinomish Instream Flow Regulation/Rural Water Supply Dilemma
Department of Ecology officials and stakeholders have been meeting publicly for the last year to discuss post-Swinomish water allocation solutions for rural areas, but their efforts have been stymied by the lack of consensus on legislative or other solutions. New ideas need to be explored and vetted to move beyond common misconceptions and a dysfunctional status quo. The state’s minimum…