PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County commissioners did not issue an outright response to a National Marine Fisheries recommendation that no additional water allocations from the Big Quilcene River or Chimacum Creek watercourses be allowed.
But Commissioners Chairman David Sullivan wants to learn more from the federal agency.
“We need to hear the logic for their recommendation,” Sullivan said during a meeting of the Board of County Commissioners on Monday.
“And we need to challenge that if we disagree.”
The recommendation, which was released last week, is one of several sent by the federal agency to the state Department of Ecology on its proposed Jefferson County in-stream rule.
If the recommendation is adopted, it would mean that no more water allocations would be allowed for new homeowners or farmers from those two drainage basins.
All three commissioners seemed wary of that outcome Monday.
“There was no new study, there is no new data so is this just a different interpretation?” Sullivan asked staff at the meeting.
Neil Harrington, with the water quality division of the county’s Public Health Department, said he believed the recommendation from the fisheries group had to do entirely with what the group focuses on — fish.
‘Preserving fish’
“They’re charged with preserving fish,” Harrington said.
“Their concern is with the spawning of summer chum in low flow years and they’re certainly very serious about it.
“It would be a good idea to bring them in on this.”
Streams in the watershed have chronic low flows in the late summer and early fall, and increases in water use can affect already threatened salmon and other fish and wildlife, according to the state agency.
After years of working closely with local and state governments and the local community, Ecology proposed a rule that will help manage water to meet the current and future needs of people, farms and fish, officials said.
In a Jan. 23 e-mail to Ann Wessel, Ecology’s in-stream flow rules coordinator, Matthew Longenbaugh, central Puget Sound branch chief with National Marine Fisheries’ habitat conservation office for Washington state, recommended that proposals for additional, capped allocations of water from the Big Quilcene River and Chimacum Creek “be revised to zero.”
“Any withdrawals that contribute to summer base flows are contrary to conservation of summer chum,” Longenbaugh said.
Longenbaugh also recommended that additional water proposed for withdrawal or reserve be halted for Salmon and Snow creeks.
Rules revised
Ecology officials have revised an in-stream flow rule presented in 2005, when several Jefferson County residents objected to the original proposal, saying they were not given notice or adequate time to comment.
Late last year, Ecology returned to Port Townsend with revision in hand.
In the revised plan, 109 homes in the Chimacum Creek sub-basin would be allocated a total of 1,940 gallons per day, with no outdoor use.
Ecology’s rule proposal targets the Chimacum sub-basin’s low summer-fall creek flows, limiting new individual permit-exempt well uses to 500 gallons per day per new household and setting a water reserve supply for 109 homes in the sub-basin.
The Quilcene-Snow watershed, known as Watershed Source Inventory Area 17, is facing increasing water demand for new residents and local agriculture, Ecology officials have said.
Ecology is accepting public comments on its in-stream flow rule proposal through Feb. 13.
No actions were taken at the commissioners’ meeting on Monday.
What was discussed was ways in which the county hopes to change the proposal as written.
“It’s easy now to make changes,” Sullivan said.
“But as for right now, it’s just us trying to influence them and have them understand our situation.”
Chimacum concerns
The commissioners said they were concerned about water running out for property owners in the Chimacum Valley and the new laws curbing growth in the area.
Also discussed were mitigation possibilities for farms and residents who needed to use more than the allotted amounts of water.
“This is a difficult process and its going to be difficult to come up with a solution for everybody,” Sullivan said.
The proposed Ecology’s in-stream flow rule for 13 Jefferson County streams sets a conservation standard for new permit-exempt well uses in all WRIA 17 reserves — except Chimacum.
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
