Featured Case

Contact:      J. David Breemer

For the past 40 years, Washington State has used a “pumps and pipes” method to allocate water rights to a new development.  Under this method, the State provided the landowner with certification for an allotment of water for the entire planned development.  Once a certificate was issued, the owner had rights to the water.  There was no time limit within which a certificate holder would have to put his water right to actual use.

In 1998, Washington’s Supreme Court invalidated the “pumps and pipes” method, concluding that under the current water allocation statute, any allotment of water must be put to actual use within a prescribed period of time.  If allocated water rights are not used, the rights may be deemed forfeited or abandoned.

In response to this limitation on water allocation and development rights, Washington’s Legislature amended certain provisions of its Municipal Water Law in 2003.  As amended, the Municipal Water Law exempts a private developer who provides water connections for 15 or more homes from the requirement to put all of its allocated water rights to use within a prescribed period of time.  In essence, the statute reinstated the “pumps and pipes” method of water rights allocation for developers.

In September, 2006, self-styled environmentalists filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court challenging the amended Municipal Water Law.  The lawsuit alleges that the amendment to the Municipal Water Law violated the separation of powers doctrine, constituted a taking, and violated substantive due process.

PLF filed an amicus brief in opposition to the environmentalists and in support of the historic water rights that the 2003 amendments attempt to restore.