King County Water District 19’s new six-year plan calls for greater conservation and better use of its largest storage tank to address an ongoing water shortage that has stymied growth in downtown Vashon for 10 years.
But the in-depth analysis, to be presented to Islanders as a draft next week, also underscores the difficulty of water resource development on Vashon, where a single-source aquifer, the Island’s geology and environmental concerns make finding additional water a costly and complex endeavor.
As a result, commissioners say, the plan will likely get the district closer to meeting its legal requirement — generating enough water to handle the demands of its current customers on a hot summer day. But it’s not clear if the district’s efforts at water resource development will enable it to begin issuing new shares to the 70 or so people currently on its waiting list, some of whom signed up for water a decade ago, commissioners say.
“I feel that past boards had a commitment, and we do, too, to try our darnedest to get people off the waiting list. In creating that list, the (past) boards have implied to them that we’re going to try to get them water,” said Steve Haworth, one of the district’s three commissioners.
But Pace Engineers, a Kirkland-based firm that worked with the district to develop its plan, confirmed that the district does not yet have enough water to meet its legal requirements, a gap it must close before the district can issue new water shares. And short of controversial, multi-million dollar endeavors, such as a costly desalination plant, Pace’s report shows, the district will continue to be hard-pressed to go beyond meeting its current demand.
“I’m anxious to get … people off the waiting list,” Haworth added. “But I don’t think it’s my obligation to double the cost of water to do that.”
The plan, more than a year in the making, charts the district’s direction for the next six years, laying out a number of projects and addressing a range of issues. It calls for improving water quality by enhancing the chlorination process, for instance, and continuing the process of replacing large stretches of old water mains that aren’t large enough for current firefighting methods.
The plan also calls for new water source development, largely because the district is required by the state Department of Ecology to meet what it calls peak demand — the number of gallons the district needs to serve the 1,400 homes and businesses within its boundaries on their highest-use day. Currently, the district has a gap between what it produces and what planning figures suggest that peak demand could be on a hot summer day, district staff said.
As a result, said Jeff Lakin, the district’s general manager, a significant portion of the plan focuses on finding ways to close that gap, authorizing the district to spend $50,000 to explore a number of potential projects that could bring more water into the system.
Most of them, however, are extremely expensive, Lakin and Haworth said. A esalination plant, for instance, would would easily cost as much as $4 million, they said; a reservoir created by damming creeks would be many millions more; even drilling additional wells is proving very costly for District 19, which has drilled nine deep wells over the years, only to have several of them turn out to be dry or inadequate.
As a result, commissioners say, their best bet is not necessarily developing projects that will bring more water into the system but finding ways to get the district’s 1,400 homes and businesses to use less.
“Conservation is actually our best hope at the moment,” said Frank Jackson, who chairs the three-person commission.
The plan calls for the district to use a variety of conservation methods to reduce demand by 2 percent, Jackson said. The commission plans to explore, for instance, widespread use of rain barrels, which would enable homes and businesses to store water in the rainy months for use on their gardens and lawns in the dry months, Jackson said.
The plan also calls on the district to fully develop the new Beall well, a $100,000 to $200,000 project to build the infrastructure necessary to bring what is now a test well on line.
Finally, the district proposes to spend $100,000 to $500,000 to address what Lakin calls dead space in its 1 million-gallon storage tank behind the J.T. Sheffield Building on 103rd Ave. S.W. Because of a lack of adequate pressure, about one-third of the tank cannot be used, he said. New pipes and a booster pump could address the situation, freeing up some 300,000 gallons that could help the district meet its summertime peak demand, he said.
According to Lakin, the project is “the one and only thing we can do short-term that is reasonably affordable.”
Some Islanders, however, will likely be unhappy to learn that new water shares — or what the district calls equivalent residential units — will still be in short supply once the new plan is approved.
Since 1997, when the moratorium went into effect, some 70 people have put their names on the waiting list, paying $40 a year to remain there. All told, those 70 people are seeking 350 water shares, some to replace aging wells on their property, others for commercial developments and still others for new home development. The district closed the waiting list in 2002.
Steve Urban, one of the last to get on the waiting list, called it “absolutely irresponsible” for District 19 to issue a new comprehensive plan without devising a way to start getting people off its waiting list. Not everyone on the list are off-Island developers, as some have suggested, he said.
Urban, who has lived on Quartermaster Harbor since 1967, has a well that he says is beginning to fail. Several years ago, he was assessed $4,000 by the water district so that it could extend its water line to his street, adding to his ire when he later found out he couldn’t hook up to the line because of the moratorium.
“We paid our fair share. We thought we’d get water. And now we can’t,” he said. “How could their plan be deemed successful if they don’t grant any additional water shares over the next six years?”
The commissioners said they sympathize with people like Urban and understand the frustration some Islanders feel. But they add that they’re trying to address what they said the previous commissions failed to take on when they freely handed out water shares — the fact that water on Vashon is in short supply.
“The district always felt like it was going to find water while it was drilling those nine wells. They thought they could do it. And it’s becoming apparent that it’s harder than the district thought, harder than anyone thought,” said Jackson.
“We’re one of the first commissions coming to grips with the fact that we probably are not going to hit a gusher,” he added.
District 19’s rates are already considered among the highest in the state, commissioners added. Were the district to undertake some of the resource-development ideas noted in its plans, its rates would likely jump astronomically, Haworth said.
“There are some grandiose ideas out there,” Haworth added. “We’ll probably do some studies. But I’d be hardpressed to go there.”
Public forum
Islanders will get a chance to learn more about District 19’s new plan and offer input at a forum at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13, in the multipurpose room at Chautauqua Elementary School.
