Due to the resignation of Walla Walla County Water Conservancy Board members Alan Kottwitz and Mike Dobbins, the Walla Walla County Board of Commissioners is seeking applicants to fill these two vacancies. One must meet the requirements below and the other is to serve as an alternate in a reserve capacity as a replacement for absent or recused commissioners. Terms on the water conservancy board are six years.

In compliance with state statute RCW 90.80.050(2), for equal representation, applicants need to meet one of the following criteria to fill these vacancies.

• Individual water right holder who diverts or withdraws water for use within the area served by the board

• Must appoint one person who is not a water right holder, except as provided in subsection (5) of this section (5) For the purposes [of] determining a person’s eligibility to be appointed as a commissioner who is not a water right holder under this section, a person is not considered to be a water right holder: (a) By virtue of the person’s receiving water from a municipal water supplier as defined in RCW 90.03.015, or (b) if the only water right held by the person is a right to the type of residential use of water that is exempted from permit requirements by RCW 90.44.050 and that right is for water from a well located in a county with a population that is not greater than one hundred fifty thousand people.

• Shall choose from among persons who are residents of the county or counties or a county that is contiguous to the county that the water conservancy board is to serve.

The Water Conservancy Board is a three-member citizen body which typically meets once a month, on the first Wednesday of each month. Duties consist primarily of conducting public meetings and expediting the administrative process for voluntary water transfers and change applications within the county of non-contested water transfers among water right holders.