Water Resource Inventory Area (WRIA) 17, also known as the Quilcene-Snow Watershed is located in eastern Jefferson County.  Watershed planning for WRIA 17 is conducted by the East Jefferson Watershed Council, formerly the WRIA 17 Planning Unit.

On December 31, 2009, the Washington Department of Ecology adopted its instream flow / water resources management rule, Chapter 173-517 WAC, for WRIA 17 after several years of contentious process.  The Olympic Stewardship Foundation, accompanied by several other organizations, worked diligently to represent the interests of the regulated community, with limited success.

Emerging information about water availability in the watershed, particularly in the Chimacum Basin, indicates that there is much more physically available water than the Department of Ecology believed.  This new information, coupled with the growing support for increasing agricultural activity in Jefferson County to meet our food security needs, helps make a case for reopening the rule to develop a more appropriate rule, with greater access to our water resources to support our needs.

An instream flow rule is essentially serves as a water right for fish and other instream needs.  Rather than rely on actual flow measurements, the WRIA 17 rule relies heavily on the use of computer models, and sets flows at the far upper range of potential instream flow.  In practice, this works out to administrative flow levels that the Department of Ecology and the Department of Fish and Wildlife determine as optimal for fish habitat, rather than the flow levels that a stream has been demonstrated to produce historically.

We strongly believe that the current rule is far more restrictive than necessary.  In the Chimacum Basin, for instance, new homes are only allowed to have water access for indoor needs.  These homeowners are not allowed any outdoor use of water for any purpose, including gardening, watering a lawn, or washing a car.

WRIA 17 Instream Flow / Water Resources Management Rule, Chapter 173-517 WAC

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