Any person hereafter entitled to divert or withdraw waters of the state through an appropriation authorized under RCW 90.03.330, 90.44.080, or 90.44.090 who abandons the same, or who voluntarily fails, without sufficient cause, to beneficially use all or any part of said right to withdraw for any period of five successive years shall relinquish such right or portion thereof, and such right or portion thereof shall revert to the state, and the waters affected by said right shall become available for appropriation in accordance with RCW 90.03.250. All certificates hereafter issued by the department of ecology pursuant to RCW 90.03.330 shall expressly incorporate this section by reference.
RCW 90.14.180
Relinquishment of right for abandonment or failure to beneficially use without sufficient cause—Future rights acquired through appropriation.
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case PUBLIC UTILITY DIST. v. State, Dept. of Ecology (2002)
Most recently applied in Crown West Realty, LLC v. Pollution Control Hearings Bd. (February 2019)
1987 c 109 s 101; 1967 c 233 s 18.
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.