After working for years to get waterfront homeowners to update their failing septic systems, King County says it nearly has something to show for its effort.

If 18 more homes along a stretch of Quartermaster Harbor can prove their septic systems are up to code and not polluting the water, that shoreline could be opened for shellfishing — something officials say would indicate a healthier harbor and open the way for millions in revenue from tribal and commercial geoduck harvesting.

“Everyone sees this as such a large body of water that is so badly polluted,” said Darrell Rodgers, manager of community environmental health in King County’s health department. “If we can get this going, it would be … a win-win for everybody, including the Vashon residents.”

The health department is now targeting those 18 properties, owned by 16 homeowners that Rodgers called “the true holdouts,” hoping to allow shellfishing in the harbor by the end of 2015.

While a few of the 18 homeowners need only to prove they’ve had an annual inspection, others have failed for years to repair or replace septic systems that are polluting the water, Rodgers said, and some have been ignoring the country entirely. Those who simply haven’t responded to county notices are now accruing fines and have liens against their homes.

“There has been a tremendous amount of hand holding going on for many years, a decade,” Rodgers said. “The lien is the last thing we want to do. … That means we’ve bent over backwards and they’re like, ‘I don’t care. I’m not contacting you.’”

Should the county be successful in getting all the identified properties up to code, a 5-mile stretch of Vashon Island shoreline from the Burton Peninsula to the southern end of Vashon Island could be formally opened for commercial and recreational shellfish harvesting for the first time ever.

“That’s currently the area we’re all working on to try to find and fix the problems and get it up upgraded to approved,” said

Scott Berbells, a manager with the state Department of Health’s (DOH) Office of Shellfish and Water Protection, which regularly samples the water in Quartermaster to determine what areas are safe for shellfishing. The DOH first evaluated that stretch of the harbor — a shoreline with many aging beachfront cabins — in the 1990s. It determined there was too much pollution from homes with either no septic systems or failing systems to allow shellfishing, Berbells said, though other parts of the harbor are now open to it.

Shellfishing in Puget Sound is a significant source of revenue for the state and for local tribes. Under a treaty agreement, they split harvesting rights for geoducks, clams that are sold at high prices to primarily Asian markets. The state of Washington brings in about $20 million a year by auctioning off its geoduck quotas, according to Blain Reeves, with the state Department of Natural Resources’ Aquatic Resources Division. The profits help fund the state’s environmental protection work throughout Puget Sound as well as its management of geoducks and other wild stocks.

“It’s an extremely valuable industry for the tribe,” said John Weymer, a spokesman for the Puyallup Tribe, which has traditional shellfishing grounds around Vashon and Maury. While he declined to give financial details, David Winfrey, a shellfish biologist for the tribe, said that about 80 self-employed Puyallup divers make a living by harvesting geoducks in southern Puget Sound. The tribe garners a 10-percent tax on their profits.

“It goes well beyond a financial thing,” Weymer added. “This is the right thing to do to be concerned about the health of Puget Sound in this region. We all know things aren’t good out there in the water.”

Winfrey and Weymer said the Puyallup Tribe has long been concerned about the septic pollution in Quartermaster Harbor, which prevents it from harvesting geoducks and other clams there and amounts to a treaty violation. Winfrey first approached King County during the 1990s, asking officials to better enforce the septic code on Vashon, an effort that he said fell flat.

Over the years the tribe has continued to pressure the county to do something, Winfrey said, and while its concerns have been well-received, it hasn’t seen results. Winfrey said he’s happy with the current effort, though he is frustrated it has taken so long.

“As a 90s person who just sees that there are laws being broken … no, I’m not pleased because it just doesn’t make sense,” Winfrey said. “How can these people be allowed to do what they’re doing? On the other hand, after learning about the process, I know that there is a due process that people have to go through.”

King County’s current effort began in 2007, when it identified 263 homeowners at six different island beaches with the worst pollution who needed to either prove to the county that their systems were in order or begin the process of inspecting and fixing them.

Since then, the county has performed extensive outreach, issuing notices and working one-on-one with homeowners in those areas, called Marine Recovery Areas (MRAs). However, in order to hasten the opening of the harbor to shellfishing, the county recently narrowed its focus on the Quartermaster Harbor MRA, and specifically those homes close enough to the water to cause shellfish closures when their septic systems are not working properly. Of those homes, 18 are not in compliance.

“These people are receiving the most intense outreach effort … to get them into compliance because the stakes are so much higher,” Rodgers said.

Recently representatives from King County, the Puyallup Tribe and the state Department of Health agreed that should those 18 homes come into compliance and should DOH water testing show good results, that stretch of shore will be opened.

“We’re closer than we’ve ever been,” Weymer said.

Many of the 18 homes are apparently owned by off-islanders. At least six owners have mailing addresses on Vashon, but others list Seattle and cities in the Seattle area on their property tax forms.

Three of the homes on 266th Lane are owned by the same person — J.M. Delano, who has a California mailing address and also owes back property taxes. County records show that Delano once took steps to begin repairs at his properties but never followed through. He could not be reached by The Beachcomber.

Rodgers said many of the homeowners on the list have told officials they lined up inspections or got on a contractor’s waiting list in order to stall the county’s enforcement process, but then never followed through. He said the county knows installing or repairing septic systems can be costly, but a low-interest loan program is now available, and the homeowners are simply breaking the law.

“We can’t continue to allow that to happen,” he said.

All of the homeowners have been issued final notices and told that they could be fined if they don’t take steps to come into compliance. A few are attempting to appeal the county’s requests, and two homeowners who have never responded — John and Nancy Burgoyne of Vashon and Corinne and David Hill, with a Seattle mailing address — have liens filed against their homes. The county’s final step is to refer cases to the county prosecutor’s office.

The wider MRA effort has also been met with mixed success. Currently 100 of the 148 total homes in the Quartermaster MRA — including those not right on the water — are in full compliance. The other 48 either need septic work or need an updated annual inspection.

Rodgers said that while the process has taken years, the Puyallup Tribe has been “extraordinarily patient.” It’s possible the tribe could sue over the pollution, but Weymer said tribe representatives hope they won’t have to consider that.

“We’ve been doing this for years, but the harbor is still closed,” Rodgers said. “We’re trying to get something where we can show people the benefit of all the work we’ve been doing.”

Berbells, at DOH, said that if not all 18 homes the county is focusing on come into compliance, it’s possible the state could still open smaller stretches to shellfishing. Rodgers said doing so could be tricky, as the homes in question are spread out along the shore. He also emphasized that the county is concerned for the overall health of the harbor and of Puget Sound, something a shellfish opening is simply an indicator of. It is still working with homeowners at the other MRAs and will add more Vashon beaches to the MRA program in the coming years.

“If we can get Quartermaster open, it will be a huge win for the county and the Vashon residents,” he said. “Then we can move on to other areas.”