Water District 19’s three commissioners voted at their meeting last week to issue 28 water units this spring, officially ending a moratorium on new shares that has been in place since 1996.

The commissioners will offer the 28 Equivalent Residential Units, or ERUs, via a lottery; those who want to enter the lottery will pay a $50 fee to do so. New water shares currently cost $11,900.

The vote on a resolution to issue new shares came after a brief but lively discussion over arsenic levels in District 19’s water supply. Shortly after it came online more than a decade ago, the district’s Beall well, used infrequently and not at all for the last 11 years, was found to have nearly four times the amount of arsenic allowed under government standards for domestic drinking supplies.

Regular consumption of water with high levels of arsenic can cause cancer and other serious illnesses, according to the state Department of Health.

The Beall well is one of five that the district operates; it is approved for use by the Health Department if the district combines the well water with water in its treatment plant, which brings the arsenic levels considerably below federal maximum contaminant levels, according to John Martinak, District 19’s general manager.

Islander Mark Graham, one of six community members present at the Feb. 16 meeting, told commissioners he was concerned that the district will eventually be forced to draw upon the Beall well if it issues new ERUs.

“The risk is not trivial,” he said. “If your calculation is that you may have to use the Beall well for drinking water, I think that’s unacceptable. I think the Beall well should be off the table.”

Under the district’s 10-year plan, approved by the state Department of Health, water from the Beall well would be a last-resort water source, for use only in extreme situations – for instance, a hot day in high summer when the fire department is fighting a large structure fire, Commissioner Mike Weller said.

Robin Pfohman, another commissioner, told Graham she shared his concerns. “It’s not our intention to sell so many water shares that we’d use the Beall well,” she said.

Should they have to draw upon that water during an extreme situation, she added, the district would likely issue notices to its customers informing them of the situation and encouraging people to use bottled water for consumption.

Seth Zuckerman, who chairs the board, said he believes the public would reduce usage if an emergency developed, eliminating the need to draw upon the Beall well at all. “Experience elsewhere shows that people in emergencies will come together and cut their use significantly for a brief period of time,” he said.

Graham left the meeting shortly after the discussion over arsenic levels. Contacted later, he said he remained concerned. “The demand to serve new customers and new development doesn’t appear to be high right now, but the urge to develop is always there,” he said. “The future is a long time. … Eventually, they’re going to need that water.”

Asked about Graham’s comments, Zuckerman said in an email that he has “faith in the commissioners and citizens of the future to make sound decisions about the use of our water resources.”

“It would be a mistake to treat the demand for water as an exogenous quantity that is fixed per customer,” he said in his email. “When we think instead about the district and its customers in synergy, providing and consuming water to satisfy specific human needs, potentially with greater efficiency, I am confident that the district would be able to avoid relying on the Beall well for anything but theoretical supply (on paper) both now and in the future.”

District 19, the largest water district on Vashon, serves nearly 1,500 connections across six square miles, a service area that extends as far north as The Harbor School, south to Quartermaster Harbor, and east to the shoreline. Vashon’s entire town core is within the district.

In 1996, facing pressure to sell more water than the commissioners at the time felt was sustainable, the district instituted a moratorium on new shares, and those who wanted a water right were added to a waiting list that at one point numbered in the hundreds.

Last week’s decision to issue new shares was years in the making. The commissioners said they could finally end the 26-year moratorium because the district had reached several significant milestones: It had exhausted its waiting list; its water supply is now more stable due to years’ worth of infrastructure improvements, and the Department of Health approved its 10-year operating plan.

That plan assumes a growth rate of 14 new shares a year until 2026, when the plan ends. The commissioners voted to approve 28 shares this year since they did not issue any last year.

Much of the discussion at the meeting focused on the mechanics of issuing new ERUs. The commissioners decided a lottery made sense but explored various scenarios, attempting to ensure a lottery did not favor one kind of water rights purchaser over another.

Ultimately, they decided that individuals could request up to 14 new shares when they are issued this spring. However, applicants would have to state the minimum number they would buy and could only buy their requested shares if that many shares were still in the pool when their name was drawn.

What’s more, applicants couldn’t change course and decide to buy fewer shares if, when their name was drawn, there weren’t enough shares to meet what they had listed as their minimum.

“We want to make sure no one can game the system,” Zuckerman said.

The resolution the board passed applies only to ERUs issued this spring. Commissioners said they would decide on an annual basis how many ERUs to issue. “I think after this year, we’ll have a lot more information about what the demand will be,” Pfohman said.

Zuckerman concurred. “We’ll continue to monitor how demand matches supply. We’re not about to open the floodgates.”