PORT TOWNSEND — An in-stream flow rule for the Quilcene-Snow watershed that is intended to strike a balance among farmers, fish and people who use East Jefferson County water could be in its final draft form — and ready to be considered for adoption — by summer 2009, said a state Department of Ecology official.
“We’re mostly trying to address the peoples’ interests in irrigating outside in the summer,” said Brian Walsh, Ecology’s section manager for policy and planning in the water division, who supervised the Water Resource Inventory Area 17 planning unit of Jefferson County and Hood Canal area water interests.
The major elements of what Ecology plans to propose in spring 2009 will be discussed during a public meeting Dec. 2 at the Fort Worden State Park Commons.
The meeting will begin at 6 p.m., and will include a short Ecology presentation followed by an opportunity for questions and answers.
When a rule is eventually adopted, it will establish water rights for 13 stream systems in WRIA 17 that protect fish and other instream resources.
An instream flow rule protects anyone with existing water rights.
The WRIA 17 planning unit includes representatives of Jefferson County government and of the Jefferson County Public Utility District, as well as agricultural interests, habitat and fishery groups and regional tribes.
The group intensified its study and meetings after an tense September 2005 forum at Fort Worden Commons attended by Ecology officials and lawmakers from the 24th District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula.
A planning unit consensus was never reached on water issues facing the county.
Still, the increasing demand for water in the Quilcene-Snow watershed has led Ecology to develop a rule that will help balance the community’s future water needs, Walsh said.
Years of planning
Quilcene-Snow watershed planning has been in the works for about 10 years, with other watershed resource groups meeting in the county dating back to the early 1990s.
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 watershed assessment program was borne out of the state’s Watershed Management Act of 1998.
Norm MacLeod was among those who called for unity and for finding a satisfactory solution to county water issues at the September 2005 forum.
He later helped found the Olympic Water Users Association.
He said this week that he is optimistic that progress had been made.
A major aspect of the rule takes into account the impact it has on business and the economy, issues driven home by MacLeod and other county agricultural and business interests.
“There are many emerging opportunities that we are investigating,” MacLeod said.
Those opportunities, he said, include ideas such as “water-banking,” where part of a water right is put into a virtual vault and where people who don’t have water rights can purchase water from the bank.
The goal is to put more water in streams while everyone else gets the water they need, said MacLeod, a Port Townsend-area political observer who closely watched Ecology’s process but did not serve on the WRIA 17 planning unit.
Research shows that low stream flows, endangered populations of fish, and anticipated demands for more water to support agriculture and new homes are some of the factors stressing local water supplies in the Quilcene-Snow watershed, Ecology officials have said.
The new rule will protect existing water users and apply only to new uses of groundwater and surface water, theyadded.
According to state law, the new regulations won’t apply to families, farms and businesses that already have legal wells or are serviced by a public water supply.
Original rule
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.
It also called for closure of all other water bodies in WRIA 17 to any future water appropriations year-round.
That included future withdrawals from any groundwater hydraulically connected to surface water, which would have an effect on that surface water, Ecology proposed.
Islands such as Marrowstone were originally proposed to be closed to new groundwater withdrawals, under the new rule, “unless approved by the department in consultation with Jefferson County.”
Ecology plans to continue collaborating with local government well after a rule is adopted to help the community develop new water sources.
Next steps
Next steps include considering the public’s feedback from the Dec. 2 meeting and incorporating changes into a rule proposal.
Ecology plans to have a draft rule ready for the public’s consideration in spring 2009.
Walsh said the rule draft comes with more data on county stream flows.
Added to the rule include allowances for rooftop rainwater catchment systems and an “in-house use provision” for Chimacum Creek, with the understanding that septic systems recharge the aquifer.
Ecology officials have long held that systems that catch rainfall from roofs for personal use or watering farm animals or gardens depletes runoff to replenish groundwater.
“People would be able to use water for in-house use with the idea that it recharges 90 percent or more,” Walsh said.
Dana Roberts, Jefferson County Public Utility District commissioner from Port Townsend who served on the WRIA 17 planning unit, said the group sought to obtain flows that were “more realistic.”
“We have to try to keep working with it in the interim,” Roberts said.
“PUD has learned a lot more about the Chimacum sub-basin where our wells are … I feel that progress has been made.
“We won’t know if enough progress has been made until we see a draft.”
________
Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
