Tuesday, February 15th, 10AM, Senate Hearing Room 4, J.A. Cherber Building.  The Senate Environment, Water and Energy Committee will hold a hearing on SB 5757.  The Squaxin Island Tribe will testify in support of the bill.

From the Squaxin perspective, the bill will provide funding to help local jurisdictions make  science-based decisions on water availability when issuing building permits under GMA (RCW 19.27,097).  Currently, if a well can pump enough water, the local jurisdiction always concludes that water is available.  This bill will help the Department of Ecology guide local jurisdictions to more science-based decisions when evaluating water availability for building permits.  If a well, particularly an exempt one, steals water from a senior instream flow right, this bill will provide for the assimilation of the kinds of data the Department of Ecology will need in order to direct the local jurisdictions to just say “no.”

So Squaxin says “yes” in support of this bill to “just say no” to most new water withdrawals!

UPDATE: Here is the public hearing, including testimony by Squaxin Island Tribe staff: