PORT TOWNSEND — A proposed state rule, which would limit new wells to 500 gallons per day in the Chimacum Valley, was greeted with anger and fear earlier this week.
A proposed state Department of Ecology in-stream flow rule targets the Chimacum sub-basin’s low summer-fall creek flows, limiting new individual permit-exempt well uses to 500 gallons per day and setting a water reserve supply for 109 homes in the Chimacum Creek sub-basin.
The proposed rule — which Ecology said was intended to protect fish, farms and people — sent out ripples of a second torrent of fears that the future of new agricultural enterprises, along with Chimacum Valley property values, are at risk of losing ground as well as groundwater.
Such was the case in 2005, when Ecology officials agreed to reconsider and rewrite the in-stream flow rule after more than 300 turned out at Fort Worden State Park Commons, the majority speaking out against the proposal and a lack of public involvement.
The Quilcene-Snow Creek Basin that makes up WRIA 17 is one of 62 watersheds designated statewide. It stretches from Sequim Bay in Clallam County east through the Jefferson County’s Quimper Peninsula and south into Hood Canal, beyond Quilcene.
The Water Resource Inventory Area 17 planning unit had not been able to meet the state’s 2005 deadline to write a locally composed rule so Ecology had taken over.
The original, controversial rule released in late 2005 called for closure to new water appropriations of the Big Quilcene River from March 1 to Nov. 15, and Chimacum Creek from March 1 to Nov. 30.
Ecology’s reworked proposal was brought Tuesday night to fewer than 100 who attended a forum at Fort Worden Commons.
Kate Dean, who leads the Washington State University LandWorks Collaborative Outreach at the WSU Port Hadlock extension office, said that, while existing farms were safe from the proposed rule, “the impacts for new farmers are really huge. Obviously nothing can be grown on 500 gallons per day.
“I don’t want to see Chimacum become a valley of hobbyist mini-estate farmers.”
WSU Food and Farm Network has trained 120 students in farming classes over the past five years, many who have grown produce to sell at the Port Townsend Farmers Market and The Food Co-op, she said.
The proposed rule comes as a time when Jefferson LandWorks Collaborative is trying to secure a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ramp up the farm education program.
Set-aside amount ‘arbitrary’
A Jefferson County Public Utility District official who served with the WRIA Area 17 planning unit, said that Ecology’s surface-water reserve set-aside amount for the Chimacum basin low flows — which is one-tenth of 1 percent — was “arbitrary” and “without scientific basis.”
Ecology proposes well surface-water reserves at 1 percent of low flows for all other creek sub-basins.
Ecology officials agreed that the Chimacum sub-basin formula was unprecedented, but added that it was driven by state law, which requires in-stream flow rules statewide.
“Our concern is, there is going to be a potential run on water,” said Bill Graham, Jefferson County PUD water resource manager.
“There will be people that will struggle to get their wells in” before the rule becomes official.
The proposal sets aside a reserve that would supply 109 new households in the Chimacum sub-basin.
“Soon the PUD will be the only game left in town for the Chimacum Valley,” Graham added.
Approve of rule
Jill Silver, watershed program executive director for Port Townsend’s 10,000 Years Institute, an environmental research organization, said the proposal was “fair and balanced.”
“We can’t maintain those investments if we don’t have the water,” she said.
Port Townsend resident George Yount said Ecology was dealing with a limited resource that could disappear and erode property values.
“You could use it all up,” Yount said. “When it’s gone it’s gone.”
Caught by surprise
PUD Commissioner Wayne King of Gardiner expressed his anger at Ecology’s proposal, which he said caught him and most others by surprise Tuesday night.
“There’s no water? There’s a ton of water. You just can’t use it,” King said.
“It’s such a frustrating deal, but we’ve got to deal with it, if that’s the way it is.”
Kings cites the PUD commissioners’ foresight in acquiring the 22 acre Peterson Lake at the headwaters of Chimacum Creek.
The lake is 50 feet to 60 feet deep, and could easily help recharge the creek’s lowest flows, he said.
Desalination of water, aquifer storage and other alternative water sources now being studied by the PUD could be considered once the in-stream flow water management rule is set within the next year, said Sally Toteff, Ecology southwest regional director for 13 counties, including Jefferson and Clallam.
Introducing Ecology’s proposal, which Ecology Director Jay Manning will ultimately have to approve, Toteff said that establishing an in-stream flow “is not something we all will agree on.”
Paraphrasing a quote from Graham, she said that working with Ecology on the rule was “like a porcupine, and nobody wants to hug a porcupine.”
How to enforce
King and others questioned how Ecology was going to enforce such a rule.
“Who is going to be watching with binoculars to see if anyone is watering their garden or washing their car?” King asked.
Tom Loranger, Ecology section manager for the southwest regional offices’ water resource program, said, “It’s the state Department of Ecology.”
Letters would be sent to offenders, Loranger said, “and we would try to work issues out.”
The state has enforcement authority, “but rarely uses penalties,” he said.
County Commissioner David Sullivan, D-Cape George, who was involved in the WRIA 17 planning unit, said the county also could act as a state agent, under the law.
“With building permits, you must prove you have potable water,” he said.
Sullivan said that, once a sewage treatment system is built to serve the Irondale and Port Hadlock areas, reclaimed and treated water from the system could be used to recharge Chimacum Creek.
Al Latham, Jefferson County Conservation District manager, whose agency has been heavily involved in county creek restoration projects, called the proposed rule “extremely conservative and unwarranted.”
A U.S. Geological Survey of the Chimacum Valley sub-basin is expected to give Ecology more data to refine the proposal, which Ecology officials said would be a flexible document.
Ecology plans to have a draft rule ready for the public’s consideration in spring 2009.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
