This was originally posted to: Guemes Island Planning Advisory Committee

Community Meeting on Seawater Intrusion-Minutes

 

April 6, 2015

Minutes for

Skagit County Health Dept Meeting with Guemes Community,

Organized by Guemes Island Planning Advisory Committee

 

The meeting was held on March 26, 2014 in the Guemes Island Community Hall, and hosted by GIPAC.  The purpose was to allow the Skagit County Health Department to explain its draft Seawater Intrusion Policy, particularly as it relates to the Guemes Island Sub-Area Plan and changes to the 2016 Comprehensive Plan, and to get feedback from Guemes residents.

 

  • Health Dept attendees: Corrine Story, Environmental Public Health Manager; Margo Gillaspy, County Geohydrologist; Ron Palmer, Health Dept and water well expert; Alison Mohns; Planning Department.?GIPAC attendees: Nancy Fox, chairperson; Michael Brown; Hal Rooks; Sandy McKean; Gary Curtis; Allen Bush.
  • Approximately 25-30 Guemes residents attended.
  • The meeting began at 5:10 PM and ended approximately 7:30 PM. 

 

Nancy Fox and Michael Brown welcomed the attendees with introductory comments highlighting the critical importance of seawater intrusion on the island's aquifer—the water source for most islanders.

Margo Gillaspy presented a diagram of the Guemes aquifer and discussed how the Guemes aquifer works.  The 'beach' aquifer on the island's seashore is 10' – 20' thick.  For every foot of fresh groundwater above sea level, the fresh water extends approximately 40' below sea level. 

Ron Palmer then discussed putting meters on residential wells, saying the value is primarily for the homeowner as a means to detect leaks.  They have little use for the County.  He also briefly discussed the value of sounding tubes and data collection.  Guemes residents said that a volunteer group of islanders, led by Marianne Kooiman, had been keeping meticulous records on several wells for 20 years, so there is a wealth of data available if the County wants it.

Mr. Palmer also discussed alternative water sources, specifically:

Rainwater catchment, which the code now allows—a recent development. Catchment systems can be stamped by an engineer hired by the homeowner; the County won't approve the plans without an engineer's stamp.   ?Reverse osmosis (RO) systems. RO systems must not use well water as a water source, and they must discharge the waste water back to the sea. Seawater is the preferred water source for an RO system.  This is because RO systems require three gallons of water to produce one gallon of useable water and the waste water has concentrated salts.  Using well water that already has elevated chlorides for RO treatment will only exacerbate the chloride problem, as would allowing the salty RO discharge to enter the groundwater.

These restrictions on RO systems were in the Guemes SubArea Plan and reflect GIPAC’s efforts to get these restrictions adopted into County code.

There was a question about whether catchment water may also be a water source for an RO system and the answer seemed to be “probably” but it appeared the County would want to study this before giving a definitive answer. 

Resident Steve Orsini mentioned his own experience with well failure and his building of a very large catchment system that produces all the freshwater his family needs.  He commented that San Juan and other counties have allowed catchment systems for 20 plus years and that Skagit should make it easier for them to be approved everywhere, not just along the Skagit River. 

Mr. Palmer responded that the closing of the Skagit basin to new wells has resulted in easier approvals of catchment systems.

Corrine Story then discussed the status of the Seawater Intrusion Policy (SIP), which has been in “interim” status since 1994.  She said her office’s proposed timeline for finalizing the new SIP is:

On April 27, the Health Department will present the draft SIP to the Board of Health (BoH) and ask the BoH to set a public hearing date;

The public hearing will be approximately 30 days later;

A public comment period will open when the BoH sets the date of the public hearing.

She is aiming for final approval of the new SIP in June, 2015.?Ms. Story said the current (interim) policy applies to new, individual wells when a building permit is required, and to new land divisions served by individual wells.  The proposed new SIP would keep the current requirements on those topics.  The Subarea Plan would prohibit new Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) if a well has more than 25ppm chlorides.  The Health Department thinks that chloride limit could be higher but will let the Board of Health decide. 

A resident asked why the Subarea Plan is more restrictive than the County code on ADUs. ?Ms. Story also commented that the proposed new SIP would seek annual chloride levels and static water level measurements from island wells.  It would also mandate sounding tubes for new wells and mandate that property owners give permission for County access to monitor their wells.?Mr. Orsini then made a number of comments about the County’s policies on new wells and their impact. He said the County’s own data shows that there have been a number of well failures due to seawater intrusion on the northern and western shores of the island so we know there is a significant problem. Nevertheless, the county still requires someone wanting to build a new house to drill a new well as the water source for this house, even though the evidence suggests that the well is likely to be too saline.

Another item in County law that needs revision is the requirement that each residence needs a water source providing 400 gallons per day.  Mr. Orsini argued that figure is highly excessive to reasonable daily water needs, and, if that same figure is converted to a catchment system, it requires a very large roof surface to provide 400 gallons per day.  This, in turn, makes a catchment system impossible to build on many smaller lots.? Another problem with the current situation is that the newest well in an area of marginal salinity may be the ‘last straw’ that causes neighboring wells to fail. This upends long-standing Washington law that older wells have ‘senior’ water rights to newer ones.  It is also illegal to pollute a single source aquifer, which current Skagit code has been allowing to happen for the past 20 years by mandating new wells in areas with already high salinity.

Mr. Orsini believes that the County should not only stop requiring new wells in marginal areas, but should prohibit them in areas designated by the County to be of known seawater intrusion.  In his view, this is the only way to stop the incremental failure of wells all over the island and pollution of the single source aquifer.  Instead of wells, the County should mandate catchment or RO systems.

Nancy Fox and Michael Brown provided a brief wrap-up of the meeting and the process.  GIPAC will discuss this issue at its next regular meeting, April 6th.

Hal Rooks

Note-taker