PORT ANGELES — It’s high time for the state Department of Ecology to fix a broken water management rule for the Dungeness River basin, Clallam County Commissioner Jim McEntire said.
“It’s getting close to cattle-prod time,” he said.
“The rule’s been in effect now since January 2013. There’s no plan that I can see yet that makes the rule work the way that the rule says it’s supposed to work, so Ecology needs to fix that.”
Property owners in a large swath of land south of U.S. Highway 101 in the east county — known as the “yellow area” from Ecology maps — have no access to the “mitigation” they need to use water from new wells outdoors.
That’s a problem, McEntire said, because the county’s rural zoning allows for agriculture, horse stables and other outdoor pursuits.
Real estate transactions in the area, which extends south to the border of Olympic National Park, have fallen through because of the yellow area, McEntire added, and property values in the zone have diminished.
The controversial rule was supposed to provide mitigation for the entire rule area between Bagley Creek and Sequim Bay, McEntire said.
“I’d like to see the yellow area go away entirely because that is not found any place in the rule,” he said in a board work session Monday.
“It is just simply an artifact of [Ecology’s] water exchange not having come up with a source of mitigation water for those areas, at least to date.”
Ecology implemented the rule to ensure that the Dungeness River and neighboring streams have enough water to protect fish and human populations, particularly in the low flow period in the late summer and early fall.
Agency officials have said more water rights have been issued than there is water in the salmon-supporting Dungeness River.
The rule requires that the amount of water drawn from new wells be replaced with mitigation water to maintain instream flows.
Examples of mitigation include buying existing, unused water rights and aquifer recharge and flow restoration projects like the reopening of abandoned irrigation ditches and the construction of reservoirs.
But Ecology says that allowing outdoor use of water in the yellow area would adversely affect stream flows in the river and other waterways.
The yellow area is south of the southernmost irrigation ditches in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley.
Outside of the yellow area, mitigation for new wells can be purchased from a reserve that Ecology set up administratively. The rule does not affect wells that existed prior to its implementation.
Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, helped secure $2.05 million in 2013 to pay for mitigation fees and water storage and conservation projects in the Dungeness Valley.
That appropriation will expire at the end of the current biennium, June 30.
McEntire, who represents the eastern third of the county and serves as board liaison for the water rule, drafted a Jan. 27 letter to Ecology Director Maia Bellon suggesting three ways to eliminate the yellow area.
His suggestions for mitigation were:
■ Obtain a legal determination that few new permit-exempt wells in the yellow area would draw from a 90-cubic-feet-per-second groundwater flow that pours into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. He based that suggestion on a report from a hydrogeologist.
■ Apply “out-of-kind”mitigation from downstream territory to the yellow area.
■ Drill a series of deep wells as far south as possible and allow a trickle of water to augment streams that would not otherwise benefit from deep aquifers.
In a March 3 reply letter, Bellon said Ecology has contracted with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to “take a closer look at mitigation and opportunities.”
“The study is projected to be completed by next winter,” Bellon wrote.
“With the study results, we should be able to determine if ‘out-of-kind’ mitigation or other more flexible approaches to mitigation will provide the protections needed in the ‘yellow area.’”
Ecology will convene a “broad audience” of state and local experts to explore the merit and viability of McEntire’s suggestions, Bellon said.
“We expect preliminary recommendations from this work group this summer,” she said.
Kaj Ahlburg of the Olympic Resource Protection Council of Sequim asked county commissioners Tuesday to join a lawsuit the group filed Dec. 31 that challenges the water rule, or at least file an amicus brief in support of it.
Doing do would allow the county to negotiate with Ecology from a position of strength and provide leverage to “ensure that Ecology actually acts rather than just offers up unenforceable promises or more studies,” Ahlburg said.
Commissioners have not scheduled a discussion on joining the lawsuit.
Bellon in her letter said she understands the “public frustration with the difficulty of selling property in the affected areas and the reluctance of potential buyers to make offers on property that is for sale in this area.”
She also defended the need for a water rule in the Dungeness basin.
“This regulation protects existing water rights, established instream flows to protect the Dungeness River, and helps guide decisions on new water uses in the watershed,” Bellon said.
Although he was “underwhelmed” by the response letter, McEntire said he was encouraged after a recent meeting with Ecology officials.
He said the agency is showing alacrity in “coming up with ways to make the yellow area go away.”
On Monday, McEntire will present a response to Ecology’s response for his fellow commissioners to discuss.
In the new letter, he says the yellow area intrudes on the county’s land-use and zoning configuration.
Mary Ellen Winborn, first-year Department of Community Development director, told McEntire last week that the county should assemble a group of stakeholders and present a “complete package” to Ecology that “works for our community.”
“It’s Ecology’s issue,” McEntire said. “They manage water. They’ve got to solve the problem.”
Said Winborn: “Well, we might not be very happy with what they come up with.”
“I’m not happy right now with the fact that there’s no mitigation water available,” McEntire replied.
“That needs to be fixed. . . . We’ve suffered through the yellow area’s existence since the rule went into effect, and it’s time for that to go away.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
