02/13/2008: "County Moves To Legalize Rainwater Catchment"

The County Council has voted to apply for a “general permit” that will result in the legalization of rainwater catchment systems; something the County has been allowing and encouraging for sometime, even though it has been illegal to do so without having proper state permits.

Because Washington State decided years ago that they “own” the rainwater that falls on the state -in the same way they own the water in the ground- a permit from the state is required to capture and use water.

The SJC Environmental Health department had in the past been opposed to the use of rainwater catchment systems, due to obvious potential health concerns and the requirement for a state permit, but over the years they have been directed by every Board of County Commissioners, the current County Council, and the new Board of Health, to permit the use of rainwater for domestic use, provided a county permit is obtained that approves the design and use of the water.

On Tuesday the department joined in with other groups and committees in support of the County applying for a state permit than will solve the legal issue.

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The State Department of Ecology is the agency charged with enforcing regulations related to the use of state waters, and for sometime there has been an internal conflict within the agency between the water resources section and the water rights section.

Catchment systems have been seen by the resources section as a way to help address stormwater impacts, and also provide a source of usable water, based on the new understanding that rainwater captured and then released back into the ground through septic systems, is removed as a source of stormwater run off, and is not subject to evaporation. It is, in other words, a potentials aquifer recharge source.

But the water rights group in the department has said “no way without a water rights permit”, Only problem with that position is it has been impossible to obtain a water rights permit. There are applications for permits in San Juan County that are over twenty years old, and no action has been taken on them.

The SJC Health department and the San Juan County Water Resource Management Committee showed up in force on Tuesday at the Council meeting to encourage the Council to apply for the general permit, and also informed the Council that at long last the state is starting to go though the pile of applications and are issuing water rights permits, but in the meantime the “general permit” the County is applying for will apply to all rainwater catchment systems, thus establishing them as legally permitted uses of state waters.

The City of Seattle has been active in the use of catchment systems, and in 2002 it passed a resolution on wastewater reuse and rainwater reclamation. Seattle has documented that In one office building that uses a rainwater catchment system, an “estimated 1.4 million gallons of water per year” is saved as a result.

In joining the unanimous vote to apply for a general permit from the state, Councilman Rich Peterson said “while I am going to vote for this, I still cannot believe the state owns rainwater.”