Law Office of Thomas M. Pors » ESSB 6091

New Speaking Engagement – November 14-15, 2019 Growth Management Act Seminar

Tom Pors — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 21:24:49 +0000

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 GMA/water supply issues for urban and rural development.

For more information and registration, call Law Seminars International at 206-567-4490 or click on this link.

New Speaking Engagement at LSI Water Law Conference in Seattle on June 14, 2018

Tom Pors — Mon, 14 May 2018 20:02:08 +0000

Tom has accepted a law seminar teaching assignment at Law Seminars International’s June 14-15, 2018 “Water Law in Washington” conference in Seattle, Washington. Tom will be on a panel discussing “Mitigation under the Foster Legislative Task Force and Pilot Projects,” at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 14th. On-line registration for this seminar is open at www.lawseminars.com.

Tom represents two of the municipal water right applicants in the pilot project authorization under ESSB 6091, Part 3. Please feel free to contact Tom for more information about pilot projects and the “Foster-fix” sections of ESSB 6091. You can also download his recent article entitled, “ESSB 6091 – Part 3: The Potential for Mitigation Flexibility in Water Rights Permitting After Foster v. Yelm” by clicking here.

ESSB 6091 – Part 3: The Potential for Mitigation Flexibility in Water Rights Permitting After Foster v. Yelm

Tom Pors — Wed, 09 May 2018 17:48:55 +0000

On October 8, 2005, the Washington Supreme Court reversed a water right permit issued by the Department of Ecology (Ecology) to the City of Yelm.1 The decision dramatically impacted the State’s water rights permitting program by denying authority to Ecology to allow any type of mitigation for potential impacts to adopted minimum instream flows (MIFs) other than 100% in-kind, in-time, in-place water replacement, even when the environmental benefits of other types of mitigation greatly outweigh impacts to minimum flows. The Court’s decision enlarged a growing disconnect between the function and intent of instream flow protection rules and the ability of the State to allocate the public’s water for any other purposes, including growing urban and suburban communities throughout the state.

This paper begins with an examination of the history of instream flow protection and its effect on groundwater availability, describes the Yelm water right application decision, and the PCHB appeal and decision. It concludes with the Foster decision and its effects on water right permitting, and discusses the potential “Foster fix” in Part 3 of ESSB 6091, adopted by the Washington Legislature and signed into law in January 2108.

To download the complete article, click here.

Legislature Passes Hirst and Foster Fix, Authorizes $300 Million for Streamflow Restoration

Tom Pors — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 18:54:51 +0000

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 watershed restoration and enhancement (WRE) plans in multiple watersheds;
It allows counties and cities to comply with GMA relating to surface and groundwater protection by relying upon applicable minimum instream flow rules, effectively overruling the Hirst decision in most watersheds;
It grandfathers wells that were drilled prior to the January 19, 2018 effective date in all but a few watersheds but with lower daily volumes;
Pending development of required WRE plans and rules, it establishes a $500 fee for building permits based on exempt wells with a maximum 950 gallons per day per connection;
It establishes a watershed restoration and enhancement account, with new bond authority and the intention to appropriate $300 million over 15 years for streamflow enhancement projects; and
It establishes a Joint Legislative Task Force to develop and recommend a mitigation sequencing process that may resolve mitigation availability issues from the Foster v. Yelm case, and directs Ecology to process water right applications for five pilot projects using a new mitigation sequencing standard.

I am preparing a more detailed article on ESSB 6091, which will be published here in the coming weeks.

[1] ESSB 6091, Ch. 1, Laws of 2018.

Tom Pors will be Speaking at the WSBA ELUL Section Mid-Year on May 11

Tom Pors — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 04:04:51 +0000

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 “Fix” or Flawed Approach to Water Resource Planning and Streamflow Protection?”

The ELUL mid-year meeting will be held at Suncadia on May 10 to 12, 2018. Tom’s panel will be presenting on Friday, May 11th at 1:15 p.m.