Government at all levels is subject to widespread public criticism. At the risk of hearing from some of those critics, I want to pay tribute to Water District 19, a branch of local government that is performing its mission on budget. Thanks to some great effort by General Manager Jeff Lakin and the staff of the district, we’re seeing great progress where we saw imminent crises just a few short years ago.

To revisit what I’ve said in these pages before, the district was forced to institute a moratorium on issuing new water service units more than 15 years ago, when it was realized that the volume of water to which we had legal rights was insufficient to permit any expansion of customers. Creek flow data revealed that the summer creek flows were significantly lower than our water rights allowed us to withdraw instantaneously. In addition, the well-field had proven that after drilling three wells, the maximum sustainable capacity was far below the amount our water rights would allow.

As a result, we had to keep dozens of people on a waiting list unless we could increase our supply of water or decrease our current usage sufficiently to allow them to be connected to our system.

There’s virtually no way we could have made progress in these directions by fully pleasing all people on both sides of the water resources debate. People who think the addition of any new customers is problematic are no doubt unhappy with the modest growth we’ve achieved. At the same time, those who believe property rights include the right to most any kind of development no doubt think we’ve moved much too slowly.

What we have done is moved quietly forward in very positive directions since those bleak days to try to modestly expand our capacity, shrink our demand through conservation and help some of our neighbors on the waiting list get water.

To lower demand, we’ve offered rebates on water-saving appliances and we’ve steepened the rates at the high end to discourage profligate peak summer usage. To carefully increase supply, we’ve opened a new Beall well and we’ve moved some of our non-usable well-field rights to another proven well on Morgan Hill.

Altogether, we’ve added some 75 new customers — customers waiting for more than 15 years for water — without straining our precious water resource. In fact, we’re actually supplying more customers while using less water than we did years ago.

And, thanks to the continuing hard work of the staff and the budget-consciousness of the management, we’ve managed to do these things while maintaining a budget surplus. As of 2006, perennial budget deficits had shrunk financial reserves to a dangerous level. Several years of tight fiscal management have resulted in a large increase of our financial reserves and facilitated the drilling of the Beall well without borrowing a penny. In fact, we’ve dramatically lowered the district’s debt.

We have also been able to embark upon a long-overdue preventive maintenance program to replace worn and dated water mains before they burst, instead of borrowing emergency funds after they do. We’ve also invested in $170,000 worth of pressure relief valves to alleviate a high-pressure zone that has plagued customers at the low end of the water system for decades — again, without placing the district further in debt.

None of these efforts are intended to produce Bainbridge-type growth, but have allowed us to have the breathing room necessary to both meet our historic peak demand (which we could not do when I took office) and add a meaningful number of new service units from off the waiting list for folks who’ve been patiently waiting.

Our aim has not been to pursue a no-growth approach nor growth at all costs, but instead to pursue a balanced approach.

We have wanted to sustain our treasured water resources into the far-distant future, keep our costs restrained and help a few neighbors who have, in good faith, been sitting on the waiting list for years.

It’s not magic. It’s quiet, dedicated hard work by some well-meaning folks at your water district. If you see a Water District 19 truck around a hole in the ground or run into someone reading your meter in the blackberry patch, or if you should be stopping in the district office any time soon, you might just say, “Thanks.”

— Steve Haworth is a commissioner for King County Water District 19.