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Unused Riparian Water Rights In Washington—Department Of Ecology V. Abbott, 103 Wn. 2d 686, 694 P.2d 1071 (1985), Lynn B. Squires

Washington Law Review

In Department of Ecology v. Abbott, the Washington Supreme Court addressed the long-standing question of whether landowners who failed to exercise consumptive riparian rights3 within a reasonable period after the adoption of the Water Code of 1917 (1917 Code) lost those rights. The question arose when a riparian landowner, who had registered consumptive water rights as required by statute in 1971, was denied those rights in a 1982 stream adjudication. The basis for the denial was that the landowner's riparian rights had not been continuously exercised since 1917. The Water Rights Registration Act, with which the landowner complied in 1971, …