Postema v. Pollution Control Hearings Board

— These two consolidated cases, one of which *73involves four consolidated cases, present numerous issues arising from the Department of Ecology’s denial of applications for groundwater appropriation permits on the basis that the groundwater sources are in hydraulic continuity with surface water sources and further appropriations are foreclosed under the criteria of RCW 90.03.290. In the five individual cases before this court, the Pollution Control Hearings Board upheld Ecology’s denial of the groundwater applications.

We conclude that hydraulic continuity between groundwater and a surface water…