What are Trust Water rights for? What’s the difference between them and other water rights?
Trust Water rights offer several advantages for both landowners and stewardship efforts. There are many creeks in Washington currently lacking water for sufficient creek flows to meet the water quality and habitat needs of fish, wildlife and people. WWT typically works on creeks where water diversions from the creek are the primary explanation for those low flows. When changing the historical use of a water right to “Trust Water” for instream flow purposes (from domestic, industrial, stock-water or irrigation), either temporarily or permanently, we are returning water to a creek to help sustain biological functions it is unable to sustain without that water. Trust Water rights are the same as other water rights in that they retain their priority date (RCW 90.42.040 (3), they have a designated place of use (a section of stream), and a designated season-of-use (the same as the original water right’s season-of-use). Their distinguishing characteristic is that they are legally recognized a
