Water rights restrict burgeoning population

This article appeared in the Monday, February 13, 2006 edition of the Tacoma News Tribune, and demonstrates what happens when a municipality's growth runs up against the artificial water availability limits set by the Department of Ecology's instream flow program.

When we look at this in the context of the sustainability movement, some interesting thoughts come to mind, particularly where the smart growth philosophy is concerned. For some years now, newcomers to most areas have been encouraged to settle within urban growth areas (UGAs), so as to retain the natural settings in the regions surrounding the designated growth areas. Now we are seeing Ecology applying the brakes to development within the UGA, and it's only just the beginning. Smart growth principles and salmon recovery principles are typically on the same page, but the Department of Ecology's water restrictions are starting to have an adverse impact on the progress of smart growth practices. This will increase tensions between these two aspects of sustainability.

As time goes on, this has the potential to strangle economic opportunity at all levels in Washington. Properties that have an existing well or water service connection will become extraordinarily valuable, and properties that don't will have their values plummet because of a regulatory environment that prevents their being used for anything other than open space. This distortion of the real estate market will increasingly pinch lower income families to the fringes of the community, if they can afford to live in the community at all. Although not an immediate consequence, the water restrictions will eventually cause even modest rental properties to be priced far out of the reach of people whose dreams of financial security will have turned into nightmares.

This underscores the importance of developing a system of water management that allows for reasonable levels of human activity, while enhancing wildlife habitat. The only way we are going to get to that system is through active participation in the process, with the public pressure that it takes to encourage government to respond to our needs.

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Water rights restrict burgeoning population

EIJIRO KAWADA; The News Tribune
Last updated: February 13th, 2006 02:35 AM (PST)
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/5522893p-4975205c.html

It might seem an unlikely problem in a record rainy season, but some cities and towns in the Nisqually River basin are facing a lack of drinking water.

Roy is especially hard pressed, despite the fact that a couple of its bridges over Muck Creek were closed in early January as roaring currents ran beneath them.

The city has essentially slapped a moratorium on new home construction after reaching the maximum drinking water capacity allowed under state regulations last year.

Eatonville will be in the same predicament in less than five years.

White River basin communities including Auburn and Sumner face similar situations. But they’re not as dire as Roy and Eatonville, which are isolated and don’t have the option to tap into other cities’ water systems.

It’s not that the wells are drying up in these Nisqually Valley communities. Rather, they are running out of drinking water, legally speaking.

“The city’s well is capable of pumping more water, but the water right’s capacity doesn’t allow the city to do so,” said Dick Roush, a planning commission member in Roy.

The state Department of Ecology issues water rights, setting the maximum amount of water that can be drawn from a source.

Developers are knocking on the door at Roy City Hall, wanting to build more houses in the city of 865 residents.

The city is authorized to provide water for 438 hook-ups, according to Mayor Kim Eldridge, but some must be held in reserve for existing homeowners.

At least one local landowner already has prepaid for 50 hook-ups, and a waiting list includes an additional 227 connections, Eldridge said.

In Eatonville, a town of 2,330 residents, the water right allows for about 1,230 hook-ups, with about 300 of them left for new homes, said Mayor Tom Smallwood. Eatonville is expected to reach its capacity around 2010.

“There’s a lot of water out there,” Smallwood said. “What the town needs is more water rights.”

But Ecology officials say there aren’t any more water rights available in some areas of the Nisqually basin.

In 1981, Ecology set minimum flow standards for the basin – including the river and its tributaries – to better protect fish and other natural resources.

Since then, summer flows have often crept below the minimums, preventing Ecology from issuing new rights, said Tom Loranger, manager of water resources at Ecology’s southwest regional office.

Various agencies have studied the basin to look for new water sources, with little or no success, Loranger said.

Farther downstream from Eatonville and Roy, Yelm is conducting its own study, hoping to find a deeper water source unconnected to the river system, said Shelly Badger, city administrator.

Yelm recycles treated water for irrigation and other uses so that it doesn’t have to use drinking water for those purposes, Badger said. The city also is looking for farmers and other water-right holders who are willing to sell.

But those are short-term fixes, and for now the communities in the Nisqually River basin have to live with what they have.

“Obviously, until you solve the water problem, you can’t grow,” said Roush, the planning commission member in Roy.

Eijiro Kawada: 253-597-8633

eijiro.kawada@thenewstribune.com

Originally published: February 13th, 2006 02:30 AM (PST)