Realtors join water resources planning unit

The following article appeared in the January 26, 2005 Jefferson County edition of the Peninsula Daily News.

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More groups seeking places on regional WRIA panel

By Jeff Chew

Peninsula Daily News

PORT HADLOCK — Water Resources Inventory Area 17 planning unit members brought the Jefferson County Association of Realtors on board Tuesday as numerous special interest groups jockey for seats on the body.

The planning unit, however, only granted advisory roles to Marrowstone Island-based Conserve Water First and the county Planning Commission, saying their votes would be considered redundant.

Conserve Water First is affiliated with Olympic Environmental Council, which is already represented on the planning unit by Willie Smothers.

The decision to keep the county Planning Commission in an advisory role was similarly based because county commissioner David Sullivan is on the planning unit, acting as its facilitator.

The decisions came Tuesday at the Washingon State University Learning Center when the planning unit met with Joe Stohr, special assistant to state Department of Ecology director Jay Manning.

The planning unit acted on membership applications and discussed the process for creating an in-stream flow rule and watershed planning.

Although the three Jefferson County Public Utility District commissioners a week ago agreed they did not want Conserve Water First on the WRIA 17 board, the planning unit, with utility district Commissioner Dana Roberts voting in favor, approved a non-voting "topical" membership on the unit.

Such a role would allow Conserve Water First to be involved in planning unit water issue discussions.

Utility District Commissioner Kelly Hays of Marrowstone Island said he disapproved of having Conserve Water First representation on the planning unit.

"I felt like we had voted to not include these people and all of a sudden we voted to do it," Hays said.

Utility District Commissioner Wayne King said it appears the district was caught by surprise, not knowing advisory positions would be allowed on the planning unit.

"I would have liked to have known more about the non-voting topical role," he said.

King said he expects the matter will be discussed further at the utility district's February workshop.

Roberts said he believed his direction from fellow board members was that Conserve Water First should not have a vote on the planning unit.

Under the planning unit rules, a "topical" position on the unit allows discussion until a vote is made.

"That's why I could accept the topical role," Roberts said.

"It is a different animal. It has no vote."

More than a year ago, Conserve Water First unsuccessfully challenged the Public Utility DIstrict in Jefferson County Superior Court over the agency's attempts to construct a water system on Marrowstone Island, which has a growing number of dry wells and saltwater intrusion fouling other wells.

Conserve Water First supports water conservation and water catchment systems as an alternative to installing a water system.

The state Department of Ecology, which is working with the WRIA 17 Quilcene-Snow planning unit to establish an in-stream flow rule, frowns on water catchment systems because they alter the natural flow of water.

Such systems capture water off building roofs for storage and use after filtration and purification.

Olympic Environmental Council's Smothers said that Conserve Water First could bring a component to the WRIA 17 planning unit table that the Marrowstone Groundwater Association could not.

The groundwater association is represented on the planning unit.

Stohr said that Jefferson County needed to strike a balance regarding its in-stream flow rule because the region's state lawmakers consider Jefferson County a "fish ciritical" area.

"Of all the basins across the state, this is the one that's very important, " Stohr said.

The state has granted $15,000 to the planning unit to hire a facilitator and secretary.

Another $100,000 is also set aside to be used for groundwater and other studies.

The planning unit's next meeting is a 6 p.m. Tuesday at the WSU Learning Center, 201 W. Pattison St., off state Highway 19.

Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.

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The meeting on Tuesday, January 31 mentioned at the end of the article is not actually a planning unit meeting. It is a meeting of the ad hoc group that is working on setting the process for the upcoming instream flow rule-making process.