Cedar River water deal will push your rates up (King County)

The following article appeared in the March 29, 2006 edition of The King County Journal.

If you live in King County, this deal will help your water rates climb a little higher. What's worth noting for those of us living in WRIAs where instream flow rules exist or are being promulgated is the part of this where instream flows are discussed.

Also worth noting . . . the lengths that King County goes to in preventing human use of the upper Cedar River watershed in the name of protecting drinking water.

Seattle gets about 70% of its drinking water from the Cedar River watershed. It doesn't put that water back anywhere close to where it came from once its been used. If you use a well and septic system combination, you are returning almost all of the water you use to the aquifer under your feet. This makes your consumptive use of water almost nothing in comparison to your urban friend who gets water from a remote watershed, uses it, sends it to the treatment plant, and almost always from there into a river or a body of salt water.

Who's doing more to support instream flows already, even without an instream flow rule in place to tell you what you can or can't do?

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Cedar River water deal will push your rates up

2006-03-29
by Dean A. Radford
Journal Reporter

Suburban customers who get their water from Seattle will see their rates increase to help pay for a proposed $18 million settlement of a long-standing dispute over stream flows in the Cedar River.

King County cities that buy water from Seattle include Bellevue, Bothell, Kirkland, Mercer Island, Redmond and Tukwila. Many water districts are major customers, too.

The settlement was announced Tuesday by the city of Seattle and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. It now must be approved by the Seattle City Council, the Muckleshoot Tribal Council and a federal court.

The tribe had sued in federal district court in 2003 over its concerns that a habitat plan for the Cedar River watershed didn't ensure adequate stream flows in the Cedar River for fish habitat.

``Out of this we get certainty for the region's water supply and we get certainty that the river will be mostly left available for fish and other instream uses,'' said Martin Baker, a policy adviser to Chuck Clarke, director of Seattle Public Utilities.

The agreement includes the controversial provision that members of the Muckleshoot Tribe can hunt in the Cedar River watershed, a sensitive and highly protected area that supplies about 70 percent of Seattle's water.

Seattle will continue its policy that nontribal hunters are not allowed inside the watershed. The regional director of the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife said that's a problem for his agency, although he applauds the provisions that protect fish habitat.

The agreement is hailed as historic because it removes a legal cloud over Seattle's ability to manage the watershed, which provides water to hundreds of thousands of suburban residents, and forever sets aside water for fish.

``The Muckleshoot Tribe is pleased to be a part of this historic agreement and looks forward to working with the city as the various elements of the agreement are implemented,'' said tribal chairman John Daniels Jr. in a prepared statement.

Just how much the rates for wholesale customers would increase in the suburbs wasn't available Tuesday.

However, residential customers in Seattle will see their rates increase by 4.1 percent annually and commercial rates will increase by 5.3 percent annually for the next three years.

Much of the increase is directly related to the settlement with the Muckleshoots, said Andy Ryan, a spokesman for Seattle Public Utilities.

Much of the $18 million goes toward paying the Muckleshoots for the historic loss of fish caused by Seattle's management of the river for more than 100 years. In those decades, the city has dammed the river and diverted its water to Lake Youngs Reservoir east of Renton.

``The debt is settled,'' said Baker, the Seattle policy adviser.

The tribe must use the money for projects that benefit fish, wildlife and the watershed, Baker said.

The city and tribe also have agreed on protocols that will protect the watershed from human impacts during hunts and trips to gather berries and herbs. The tribe will control and monitor who goes into the watershed for the hunts, a key concern of Seattle officials because of potential terrorist threats to drinking-water supply.

While the agreement lifts the cloud over Seattle's water supplies, the provision that Muckleshoot Tribe members can hunt in the watershed for ceremonial and subsistence purposes has drawn criticism from hunters and the state, which has an equal-access policy for hunting grounds.

It's a right, the tribe and Seattle argues, that's already guaranteed to the Muckleshoots by treaties signed in the mid-1800s. First, the tribe will study whether the watershed can even support a big-game hunt for elk.

Bob Everitt, the regional director for the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife has been briefed on the agreement but hasn't seen the details.

However, allowing tribal hunters into the Cedar River watershed, but not nontribal ones, ``is not a good approach from our view,'' Everitt said. Elsewhere in the state, the state and tribes manage the wildlife together in the hunting areas, he said.

``The city can't give that away,'' Everitt said.

However, Baker, the Seattle policy adviser, said the city can't prevent tribal members from entering the watershed. The issue of non-tribal hunting has nothing to do with the settlement, he said.

The watershed is actually in a state game unit, but there hasn't been a hunt allowed there for years, Everitt said. When limited hunting was allowed, the hunter faced a citation from Seattle for trespassing,

A good thing, said Everitt, is the assurances that Seattle will set aside plenty of water for fish habitat forever -- more than it was initially required to save.

``Having water available at the right time of year is critical to fish,'' he said.

Dean Radford covers King County. He can be reached at dean.radford@kingcountyjournal.com or 253-872-6719.

THE SETTLEMENT

Key provisions of a proposed settlement over instream flows in the Cedar River between the city of Seattle and Muckleshoot Indian Tribe include:

* Guaranteed stream flows: This was the key concern of the Muckleshoots, because Seattle had substantial claims to water from the Cedar River. Now, the city will limit that claim forever, even in the face of growing demand for water.

* $18 million debt paid: The tribe and Seattle agree that the value of the fish lost to operations on the Cedar River, including dams, is $18 million. The tribe will get paid in cash (to go toward projects in the watershed) and in land. The land includes parcels in the Green and White river watersheds and a site high in the Cedar watershed of sacred value to the tribe.

* Access for tribal hunters: Treaties grant the Muckleshoots access to the watershed, their traditional grounds, but Seattle has denied them that access in most cases. Now, tribal hunters can go into the watershed to hunt for ceremonial and subsistence purposes. The tribe and city will work together to ensure the watershed is protected during these hunts and other activities.

* Wildlife management: The city will pay the tribe $2.5 million over 10 years to do fish and wildlife research in the watershed. The tribe also can improve habitat for big game such as elk, which like open areas. The tribe can't log or do major land-clearing. The idea is to develop an old-growth forest.

* The sockeye hatchery: Seattle will continue to design, build and operate a roughly $45 million hatchery designed to increase the sockeye salmon run on the Cedar River. The agreement allows for the transfer of the hatchery to the tribe.