• 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.