The world of water resources has its own language. This list was prepared to help you understand terms that may be unfamiliar.
Basin – A land area that drains to a common waterway.
Beneficial use – Refers to a reasonable quantity of water applied to a non-wasteful use, such as irrigation, domestic water supply, industry and power generation, to name a few.
Exempt wells – see below under "permit-exempt wells".
Ground water – Water located under the ground.
Instream flow – A legal term that means a specific stream flow (typically measured in cubic feet per second, or cfs) at a specific location for a defined time, and typically following seasonal variations. Instream flows are usually defined as the stream flows needed to protect and preserve instream resources and values, such as fish, wildlife and recreation.
Instream flow rule – A formal legal document, adopted in the Washington Administrative Code (WAC), which describes and establishes instream flows, and water management provisions for a watershed. Once adopted, an instream flow rule has a priority date just like any other water right.
Instream resources – In Washington State, the Department of Ecology is mandated under state law to establish state water management rules that protect and preserve water for “instream uses,” that is, how water is used within the stream. Instream resources include use by fish, wildlife, recreation, navigation, aesthetics, water quality and livestock watering.
Permit-exempt wells – A well drilled to provide water that does not require application for a water right. A property owner may use water from such wells for industrial or domestic uses up to 5,000 gallons per day. A permit-exempt well may also be used to provide water needed for irrigating up to ½ acre of domestic lawn or garden, and for stock watering.
Prior appropriation doctrine – A tenet of water law known as "first in time, first in right." Those applying for and receiving water rights first have priority in water use over those applying later.
Priority date – The date an application was filed for a permitted or certificated water right – or the date that water was first put to beneficial use in the case of claims and exempt ground water withdrawals.
Seawater intrusion – The movement of saline ground water into a freshwater aquifer.
Stream flow – Amount of water actually flowing in the stream, typically measured in cubic feet per second (cfs).
Surface Water – Water located above ground, such as a river, stream, spring or lake.
Water right – A legal authorization to use a certain amount of public water for a designated purpose. The water must be put to “beneficial use,” which refers to a reasonable quantity of water applied to a non-wasteful use, such as irrigation, domestic water supply, industry and power generation, to name a few.
Watershed – A land area that drains to a common waterway.
WRIA 17 – Acronym for Water Resource Inventory Area 17, a.k.a. the Quilcene-Snow Basin. Based on hydrologic boundaries that run from the southern watershed of Marple Creek to as far west as the Johnson Creek drainage on Sequim Bay. The major sub-basins are the Big and Little Quilcene, Dabob/Thorndyke, Salmon/Snow, Chimacum, Ludlow, Quimper, West Sequim Bay, Indian/Marrowstone and Miller.