Notice of Introduction for Substitute Senate Bill 5517 - Update: 10 Year Analysis Complete

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UPDATE: The 10 year analysis for SSB 5517, titled AN ACT Relating to enacting recommendations from the joint legislative task force on water resource mitigation, has been completed. The Office of Financial Management has identified this bill as requiring a ten-year projection of increased cost to the taxpayers or affected fee payers.

Ten-year projection:

Department of Ecology:

Under section 1(5), an applicant would be allowed to participate in a fee in-lieu of mitigation program in collaboration with Ecology, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Tribes where the applicant agrees to provide funding for implementation of mitigation to the water right application.

Ecology is unable to estimate potential cash receipts from a fee in-lieu of mitigation program due to the significant variability and complexity of determining individual water rights.  Each application would have unique legal, technical, scientific and geographic factors that would make a fee in-lieu of mitigation determination on each individual water right application equally unique.  

The number of applications received by Ecology that would participate in the fee in-lieu of mitigation program is uncertain.  Ecology anticipates that each Ecology region would receive applications to use the fee in-lieu of mitigation option to obtain an approved water right.  However, the total number of applications and the individual fee of each application to participate in the fee in-lieu of mitigation program is indeterminate.

Ten-year projection prepared in consultation with the following agencies:

Department of Ecology

The substitute bill was proposed by:

Senate Committee on Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources & Parks
(360) 786-7411



The original bill sponsors and contact information are:




Legislative Bill Information Website: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/

Initiative 960 Website: http://www.ofm.wa.gov/tax/default.asp