PORT TOWNSEND — A plan to cut the drawdown of new wells by tenfold compared to currently allowed levels in the Quilcene-Snow watershed got a sour reception from critics at the rules’ lone public hearing, held last week.
The salmon-protecting regulations, which could go into effect early this fall and last 16 years before being renewed, would cut the allowable limit of water taken from new wells to 500 gallons a day.
Wells in use before approval would not be affected and could still be drawn down by up to 5,000 gallons a day.
Compliance would be enforced by remotely-monitored, on-site meters and the threat of potential $5,000-a-day fines in an area known as Water Resources Inventory Area 17, which covers the Quilcene-Snow watershed.
Outdoor watering of any kind including irrigation would not be allowed in the Chimacum area, but the rules add the option of rainwater catchment systems for outdoor uses.
The state Department of Ecology insists that Jefferson County Public Utility District has water rights that are not fully developed and that an average family in the watershed — estimated at two persons — uses no more than 350 gallons daily.
Most opposed
But the rules still didn’t sit well with most of those who spoke during the 95-minute hearing at Fort Worden Commons on Thursday.
About 60 county residents attended, and at one point had to be told by Ecology’s moderator to stifle their applause for critics of the proposal.
By a more than 3-1 margin, the 11 opposing speakers – their every word recorded by a court reporter — pushed for a delay in the new rules and criticized the studies upon which they were based, saying the data was out of touch with economic and environmental reality, factually flawed and issued by an agency that can’t be trusted.
Critics included farmer and former Jefferson County Planning Commission member Dennis Schultz, Dick Bergeron of the Chimacum Grange, Bud Schindler and James Fritz of the Olympic Stewardship Foundation, county Association of Realtors representative Teren McLeod, Extension Service Small Farms Program Director Kate Dean, and farmer Roger Short, who said he once owned the largest agricultural tract in the county.
Every speaker will receive an individualized, written reply.
“I don’t know how precious salmon is,” Short said. “I feel like I’m an endangered species.”
The rules would protect what Ecology calls instream stream flows in 13 waterways in the Quilcene-Snow watershed, including the Big and Little Quilcene rivers and Thorndyke, Chimacum, Ludlow, Salmon and Snow creeks.
Well use
Ecology says well drawdowns are compromising those flows.
The rules are intended to protect the flow of water — keeping it at levels that allow salmon to spawn and thrive — beginning later this fall.
The water usage limits also would create a “reserve” of 307,311 gallons a day set aside for wells that would still allow construction of up to 1,369 homes with new wells until 2025.
That’s when Ecology says the rules would be reviewed and the agency would look for other water supply sources to meet the needs of the population, Tom Loranger, water resources manager for southwest regional, said Friday in an interview.
He said an average of about 50 new-well permits have been issued annually in the affected area over the last 10 years.
Chimacum Creek
But Chimacum Creek was of particular concern to critics. The rules would create a reserve of 1,940 gallons a day for 149 homes over 16 years.
“The small amount of water allocated in reserve for the Chimacum subbasin is wholly inadequate and unreasonably applied, based on a hypothetical amount of water that DOE and [the Department of Fish and Wildlife] would like to see in the streams,” McLeod said.
Schultz said the plan was not needed, especially with the county’s economic downturn.
“The only people who will benefit is the Department of Ecology,” he said.
“We have studies planned in the next several years that will give us a better understanding of just how much water we have available and how it flows through our basins. Why not wait for the results of these studies?”
Fritz questioned the existence of a water shortage, said aquifers are adequately fed by rainfall and questioned Ecology’s assertion that instream flows are connected to well levels.
But Ecology insists salmon will benefit from the new rules.
Steelhead, Hood Canal chum salmon and bull trout are listed as threatened species in the affected area, Mitchell Dennis, Endangered Species Act response unit biologist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said Friday.
In fact, the National Marine Fisheries Service, which oversees the Endangered Species Act, has requested that no new wells be allowed in the Chimacum Creek basin, which Ecology would allow, Loranger said.
“They can appeal these rules, just like other parties can appeal these rules, and there are other legal actions they can take,” such as suing Ecology for protection of endangered species, he added.
In testimony at the hearing, Hal Beecher, a Fish and Wildlife instream flow biologist, said the rules “protect, but do not enhance nor restore instream flows.”
He added, “We fully recognize that existing water rights will not be affected by the proposed rules.”
In addition, Dave Fuller, hydrologist for the Port Gamble S’Klallam tribe — a senior water-rights holder — said the rules were put on hold for five years while 60 new wells were drilled in the Chimacum area, further compromising salmon habitat.
Critics have three choices, he said.
“You could set an instream flow rule based on science,” he said. “It’s not perfect, but it’s the same instream flow that’s used all over the state.
“Or you could wait until there is more perfect science, which you are not likely to get.”
The goal is for Ecology not to close the entire Water Resource Inventory Area 17 to all well drilling, he continued.
“If that’s not acceptable, the ultimate solution is for adjudication of the watershed, which opens up every existing water right. Do you want to put the county on hold for three or four plus years for development and growth?”
The well drawdown regulations are being considered through a 180-day window.
They were proposed May 18. Ecology is accepting comments on them until 5 p.m. July 10.
Written comments can be mailed to:
Ann Wessel, Department of Ecology Water Resources Program, P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, WA 98504-7600, or e-mail awes461@ecy.wa.gov.
Comments can also be entered online at Ecology’s Quilcene-Snow Web site, www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/instream-flows/quilsnowbasin.html.
Ecology can approve them between Aug. 28 and Nov. 30.
“The most significant date is Nov. 30, because that’s when we have to make a decision on the new rules,” Loranger said.
They become effective 31 days after Ecology approves them.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
