The legislature finds that the alleviation of recurring flood damages to public and private property and to the public health and safety is a matter of public concern. As an aid in effecting such alleviation the state of Washington, in the exercise of its sovereign and police powers, hereby assumes full regulatory control over the navigable and nonnavigable waters flowing or lying within the borders of the state subject always to the federal control of navigation, to the extent necessary to accomplish the objects of this chapter. In addition, in an effort to alleviate flood damage and expenditures of government funds, the federal government adopted the national flood insurance act of 1968 and subsequently the flood disaster protection act of 1973. The department of ecology is the state agency in Washington responsible for coordinating the floodplain management regulation elements aspects of the national flood insurance program.
RCW 86.16.010
Statement of policy—State control assumed.
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case 88 Wash. 2d 726 - Maple Leaf Investors, Inc. v. Department of Ecology (1977)
Most recently applied in Klineburger v. King County (August 2015)
1987 c 523 s 1; 1935 c 159 s 1; RRS s 9663A-1.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.