Sharing water resources over a wide region is an idea that goes
hand-in-hand with the Growth Management Act’s strategy of
concentrating population in urban areas while protecting rural
areas.
Of course, the first level of action is water conservation. But
the ability to take water from one aquifer with an adequate water
supply while protecting an overtaxed aquifer somewhere else makes a
lot of sense.
That’s the idea behind building new pipelines to connect
numerous water systems across a good portion of Kitsap County,
including Silverdale. I described the latest steps in this plan in
a story published in
Monday’s Kitsap Sun.
Thirty years ago — before the Growth Management Act was passed —
I recall talking to folks at the Kitsap Public Utility District,
who declared that they were not in the land-use business and had no
intention of getting involved in land-use battles. It was the job
of the Kitsap County commissioners to decide where to put the
growth, they said. The PUD staff and commissioners believed their
role was to provide water for the growing population, wherever it
goes. Check out this
Kitsap Sun story from Feb. 25, 2001.
The state’s Municipal
Water Law of 2003 clarified that the KPUD could deliver water
from one place to another throughout its service area — which is
all of Kitsap County. That allows water to be brought to developed
areas in North Kitsap, where annual rainfall is half of what we see
in the forested areas of Southwest Kitsap, where the Seabeck
aquifer is located. (See annual precipitation map on this
page.)
Many environmentalists have objected to certain portions of the
Municipal Water Law, especially sections that included developers
as municipal water suppliers — a move they say opens the door for
abuse by financial interests.
One of the big concerns in water management is that pumping too
much from an aquifer — especially a shallow aquifer — could disrupt
the subsurface flows and springs that maintain stream levels in the
summer and early fall. Adequate streamflows are needed for many
species, not the least of which are salmon.
With adequate monitoring, as needed for planning, experts can
track groundwater levels and streamflows to avoid such problems.
Pipelines allow aquifers to be “rested” when needed. And elected
PUD commissioners can be held accountable for their decisions
regarding the regional management of water.
Future water supplies and the right to use the water constitute
one of the most complicated issues in environmental law. A 2003
paper by the Washington Department of Ecology, called
“Mitigation Measures Used in Water Rights Permitting” outlines
some of the methods being used to protect natural systems and
competing water rights. Mitigation for use of the Seabeck aquifer,
which is an important water supply in Kitsap County, is described
briefly on pages 19 and 20.
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