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Water supplies across the state are under increasing stress. Drought, flooding, warmer winters, and changing snowpack are affecting rivers, aquifers, ecosystems, communities, and farms. These changes are making it harder to ensure clean, reliable water for people, fish, agriculture, and the economy.
Washington’s Water Future is a new statewide initiative led by Governor Bob Ferguson and the Washington State Department of Ecology to help Washington prepare for growing water challenges.
Following the Governor’s announcement of the Washington’s Water Future initiative, Ecology has been directed to lead statewide conversations. Beginning in summer 2026, we will host regional roundtables with Tribal governments, local governments, agricultural groups, industries, utilities, environmental organizations, and community groups.
These conversations are designed to:
Share local challenges
Identify what’s getting in the way
Highlight practical ideas and solutions that work for different regions
Washington’s Water Future helps support these discussions and build stronger partnerships statewide. By bringing together many different voices, we can identify shared priorities and shape future policy, planning, and on‑the‑ground actions.
Multiple paths to progress
There are many ways to approach this initiative together. Some of the topics we will explore as we solve this include:
Aquifer recharge
Reclaimed water
Water storage
Conservation and efficiency
Wetland restoration
Floodplain restoration
Region‑specific strategies to build resilience
These tools can help communities adapt, improve water reliability, support habitat, and strengthen long‑term watershed health.
Next steps
We’re hosting a series of opportunities for different groups of people:
Public input sessions (virtual)
Interest-group input sessions (virtual)
Tribal input sessions (virtual)
Regional roundtables with invited stakeholders (in person)
Updates and summaries from these engagements will be provided through our email list.
We are also participating in meetings of existing water collaboratives in different basins like the Chehalis, Dungeness, Icicle Creek, Yakima, and Walla Walla. Upon request, we will meet in government-to-government meetings with Tribal governments.
Provide your input
There are multiple ways to offer your input and we’d appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts by completing our brief survey.
Governor Ferguson asked Ecology to lead the Washington’s Water Future initiative to bring people together to develop solutions to our greatest water challenges.
For generations, we built our way of life around snowpack, but it’s no longer a reliable resource. Extended drought and record flooding highlight the importance of acting now to better prepare for and adapt to these changing conditions.
Ecology is hosting a series of roundtable discussions across the state to engage a wide range of people and groups. The goal is to build a shared understanding of the States’ water challenges and collaboratively identify potential solutions.
Climate change is reshaping Washington’s water and our way of life. Increasingly, we have too much rain in the winter causing higher river flows and damaging floods. We have unreliable snowpack that is melting earlier in the spring. In the summer, it’s warmer and drier, with less rain. Our communities need reliable water access to support affordability, housing, and a strong economy. Climate change and population growth are increasing pressure on already scarce water resources.
Bold conversations around water management are overdue and the time is now to advance these conversations, building on recent historic droughts and flooding, to elevate a common understanding of the issue and chart a path forward that supports climate resilience and wise water management.
Solutions vary across the state. Finding the right solutions for the right places means listening to communities to hear their needs and challenges and affirm effective regional actions and progress.
There are great examples of innovation and collaboration across the state to build upon, including win-win solutions that meet the water needs for people, farms, and fish. Many areas have sought integrated solutions that help protect communities from damaging floods, address water quality issues and ensure a more sustainable water supply.
Solutions like protecting and restoring wetlands and floodplains, recycling water, increasing conservation, and finding more ways to store water both above and below ground can serve as a foundation for these converations and future solutions.
Washington’s Water Future is designed to foster broader and integrated conversations about solutions and help us begin to design a shared future together.
This work builds on the strong foundation of previous and ongoing efforts around the state, while focusing on the new realities of climate change and solutions that provide multiple benefits.
This initiative is proactively elevating solutions relevant today and for decades to come – and identifying barriers to action.
Some areas of the state have already come together to develop plans and advance integrated solutions. Basins like the Yakima, Walla Walla and Chehalis serve as models for bringing diverse people and interests together to understand challenges, develop plans, and advance solutions built on shared goals.
These areas are doing important work that informs this broader set of conversations. Washington’s Water Future will not change what’s already working in these places, nor alter or displace the well-established plans, projects or priorities that they’ve developed. Washington’s Water Future aims to initiate and replicate these types of conversations in other areas of the state, with the goal of expanding a common understanding of challenges and identifying solutions.
Ecology will meet with these regional collaborative groups to help capture their experiences and perspectives to inform Washington’s Water Future.
Ecology is compiling a short summary of key themes from each roundtable discussion which will be posted on Ecology’s website. Ecology will also compile a report summarizing key themes and findings from all roundtable discussions and outreach. This report will be published in the fall and made available on Ecology’s website.
This fall, Ecology will also continue engaging with Governor Ferguson and other state agencies on potential state efforts based on needs, challenges, and solutions discussed in Washington’s Water Future.
Ecology invited people experienced in Washington’s water issues and collaborative processes who represent diverse interests and geographies to provide informal advice on how to successfully structure this engagement.
For example, members advised Ecology on participation, structure and framing of discussions, recommended invitees, and will provide their perspectives on potential next steps. Members will also be invited to participate in roundtable conversations.
Bill Clarke
Jon Devaney, Washington Tree Fruit Association
Aaron Dunham
Peter Dykstra
Paul Jewell, Washington State Association of Counties
Steve Malloch
Jay Manning
Darcy Nonemacher, Washington Conservation Action
Phil Rigdon, Yakama Nation
Carl Schroeder, Association of Washington Cities
Tom Tebb
Fran Wilshushen, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
For the in-person regional roundtables, attendees include local governments, water utilities, Tribes, irrigation districts and agricultural producers, local elected leaders, and local environmental groups. Ecology focused on inviting participants from key interests and groups specific to that particular geography and with experience in water issues. While specific attendees for each roundtable varied, Ecology aimed to balance diverse interests at a manageable size in order to foster productive dialogue.
The in-person roundtables are just one of the many ways we’re asking for input on how our state can tackle future water challenges. Ecology held two virtual public input sessions and is accepting input through our online survey.
Ecology also is hosting virtual input sessions for groups such as Tribes, water utilities and local governments, agriculture, housing and business interests, and environmental and environmental justice interests.
