PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles has applied for a water right that would enable sprint-boat races to occur at the port’s former South Fairchild Industrial Park.
The public agency illegally allowed water from a man-made pond to be drawn down earlier this fall, Michael Gallagher, state Department of Ecology water resources program section manager, told port commissioners at their regular Monday meeting.
The port should not have allowed pond water to be extracted for the heavily-attended U.S. Sprint Boat Association Nationals in mid-September at 2917 W. Edgewood Drive, Gallagher said.
Neither A2Z nor the port will be fined or otherwise penalized, Gallagher said.
Water extraction also would require a drawdown permit and possibly Army Corps of Engineers’ permission if wetlands are involved, Gallagher said.
“Both the port and [landowner] A2Z are exploring water right options,” he said.
Gallagher gave a half-hour presentation to the commissioners on what Ecology had billed as a class on “Water Law 101.”
“We were all raised in a society and a country where we really take water for granted, yet it is owned in common by the people,” he said.
Port Executive Director Jeff Robb told Peninsula Daily News on Sept. 14 the port had built the pond for Christmas-tree irrigation, had stopped using it for that purpose about 10 years ago and that Robb had thought the right still existed.
It applied for the water right last week.
But rights for such purposes as irrigation and other “beneficial uses,” as Ecology calls them, expire if they go unused after five years, Ecology spokeswoman Kim Schmanke said.
Robb was unavailable for comment after the meeting.
But the port is now headed in the right direction, Commissioner John Calhoun said after Gallagher’s presentation.
“We are convinced the port is on the right track to get it right with water-right laws,” he said.
“We are going to pursue that,” Calhoun said. “We definitely admit to using that water to beneficial use. That’s something we gladly admit to and [will] go forward.”
Morrison said Monday after Gallagher’s presentation the sprint-boat track has remained full of water three months after the races, which drew 8,000-10,000 spectators.
Morrison said he expects drawing down the pond next year probably won’t be necessary, adding the track is dug into clay.
“Every time it rains now, it overflows,” Morrison said.
But as insurance, A2Z is applying for a temporary [water] permit, “which they seem to think they can give to us fairly quickly,” Morrison said.
Gallagher’s presentation was “informative,” he added.
“As long as we’ve been proactive, they’ve been very good to work with,” Morrison said. “I understand their system a lot better. There really is a way through it. There is an end to it.”
Ecology issued the cease-and-desist order after receiving a complaint from the Spokane-based Center for Environmental Law & Policy.
The Dry Creek Coalition and Center of Environmental Law and Policy, which represent interests for the Dry Creek watershed area, had questioned whether the pond was part of a wetlands area or part of the Dry Creek watershed and asked Ecology to halt the transfer of water and return it to the pond.
Lawyer Shirley Nixon of Port Angeles told commissioners that she was concerned about what the port charged Morrison for the water and questioned whether the transaction amounted to a gift of public funds.
But Morrison said that because the track used “contained stormwater,” no permit was needed to hold it.
“We transported unpermitted water,” Morrison said. “We knew we had free water because it was stormwater. We didn’t know we needed a permit to transport the water.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladaily
news.com.
