PORT ANGELES –– Dungeness Valley property devalued because of provisions of the Dungeness Water Rule could have an impact on tax bills throughout Clallam County, a local water watchdog said Tuesday.
Sequim real estate agent Marguerite Glover, who was a member of the Dungeness Water Working Group when the state Department of Ecology was developing the rule and has opposed it, told the Port Angeles Business Association at its Tuesday meeting at Joshua’s Restaurant that some properties have been seriously devalued since the Ecology implemented the Dungeness Water Rule in January 2013.
“I have people come to me every day, and they say, ‘Oh, I want to live in the county, I want to have a garden, I want to have horses.’ And then I explain the water rule to them,” Glover said.
“They don’t even want to look anymore.”
The Olympic Resource Protection Council, a building industry-backed group, is considering a lawsuit to force Ecology rework the water rule.
“What [Olympic Resource Protection Council] wants to do is ensure that everyone can drill a well; that every property with a well can use water indoors, for gardens and for livestock,” Glover said.
“The real reason I’m here, is if they do decide to go ahead with a lawsuit, it’s going to cost a lot of money.”
Water use in the basin was restricted by the Dungeness Water Rule, a measure instituted with the aim of preserving water in the Dungeness River for both human use and aquatic species when the river’s flow diminishes in dry summer months.
The rule requires water users to offset water they draw from the basin for new uses.
In some areas, new property owners are not allowed to use water to irrigate gardens or lawns or to water stock, Glover said.
“I have one woman who owns 20 acres of Blue Mountain Road who can’t use water outdoors,” she said.
“She was crying. She couldn’t believe this was real.”
Glover said another 92-acre property has not sold because buyers could not water livestock.
“When that happens and property values drop, all the rest of us pay higher taxes,” she said.
Said Edna Petersen, owner of Necessities and Temptations gift shop in Port Angeles: “We don’t get all our wishes, our roads, our services, our everything, when those property values go down.”
The rule covers the eastern half of Water Resource Inventory Area 18, from Bagley Creek to Sequim Bay.
The Dungeness River is home to four fish species under the protection of the federal Endangered Species Act.
In January, the Olympic Resource Protection Council petitioned Ecology to overhaul the rule, saying the agency misused a statutory justification known as “overriding consideration of public interest” when it set a minimum flow level for the Dungeness River
That petition was denied in March, when Ecology determined the council’s problems with the water rule could be addressed as the rule is implemented.
Greg McCarry, chairman of the council, was scheduled to speak but was in California.
In a phone call after Tuesday’s meeting, McCarry said the group plans to kick in its fundraising efforts next week in the hope of filing a legal challenge to the water rule by October.
The council has until November to file a suit and expects attorney fees could cost upward of $100,000.
For more information about the Olympic Resource Protection Council, visit the group’s website, www.
olympicresourcepc.org.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
