PORT TOWNSEND — A Jefferson County deputy hearing examiner took final public testimony Tuesday for and against a long-debated water system proposed for Marrowstone Island.
Some of about 50 people crowding the county courthouse commissioners chambers — mostly Marrowstone Island residents — touched on issues such as the Chimacum Valley aquifer, wetlands, soils, the shoreline, water rights and water capacity.
That came after the county Department of Community Development accepted more than 50 pieces of written public comments and opinions from seven public agencies in recent weeks, said David Johnson, assistant county planner in the county’s Development Review Division overseeing the proposed Jefferson County Public Utilities District project.
The PUD is proposing the pipeline system in the wake of wells either dried up or fouled by salt water on Marrowstone.
Deputy hearing examiner
Mark Hurdelbrink, a deputy hearing examiner for the county hired from the Tacoma law firm of McCarthy, Causseaux, Rourke Inc., told those who sat and stood through more than an hour of testimony that he will render a written decision in two weeks.
“Obviously, this is a huge issue,” Hurdelbrink said, closing the hearing in the crowded room in which many complained about the lack of a sound system to hear testimony.
The state Department of Ecology has the final say in the PUD’s application, but a high-ranking Ecology official last week voiced the department’s general support for a Marrowstone water system.
Jefferson County commissioners are not part of the decision-making process.
