EPRC’s Miller prevails upon Sewer District to work out differences with the County

Nearly two years ago, in an order granting the county more time to work on compliance issues, the Growth Management Hearings Board (GMHB) stated, “The lack of agreement between the County and the Eastsound Sewer District continues to delay the establishment of a compliant GMA.”

That situation still describes the obstacle for Orcas Island compliance with the Growth Management Act (GMA), as the GMHB announced on Jan. 30, 2009 in its decision on the matter, “While the [GMHB] has no jurisdiction over County approval of the [Sewer] district’s plan… it does have jurisdiction to determine whether the County Comprehensive Plan’s capital facilities element which now includes the District’s sewer plan, (emphasis added) complies with the GMA…

“By including in its Comprehensive Plan the District Plan’s proposed sewer extensions outside the UGA to a nonexistent LAMIRD, including to an area where no document health hazard exists, and to where no investigation of other alternatives to sewer service is discussed in its capital facilities element, the County’s capital facilities element for sewer service does not comply.”

In an attempt to come to a solution, the County Development and Planning Director Ron Henrickson wrote to Ed Sutton, sewer district commissioner, at the Eastsound Sewer District (ESWD) on Friday, Feb. 6,

The County respectfully requests that the sewer board amend its sewer plan (CIP) to include an * for the sewer extension project for a sewer line to a possible country corner LAMRID (Limited Areas of More Intensive Rural Development). The Hearings Board has found the County compliant on every issue in Eastsound except this item. If the sewer board amends its plan the County will amend the Comp Plan to include it.

The language reads as follows: “This sewer extension is solely for the purpose of providing service to parcels within a county adopted LAMRID and shall not be constructed unless and until a LAMRID is established in compliance with the GMA.”

However, Sewer District staff and commissioners maintain that the County has already approved the CIP (Capital Improvements Plan) which calls for a sewer line to Country Corner, and that to change the plan will involve more than the simple addition of the proposed language.

Patty Miller and Bob Connell, Eastsound Planning Review Committee (EPRC) members, attended the sewer district meeting on Feb. 10, when Miller campaigned for cooperation between the county and the sewer district for the sake of compliance. Miller said she was at the Sewer District meeting as a district customer and asked the commissioners to make the change the county suggested.

“It’s time to move on and get compliant and implement plans and get the money we’re supposed to be getting if we’re compliant,” Miller said.

Commissioner Mike Stolmeier replied, “The public health is the only thing that matters.”

Miller countered, “The public health won’t be won or lost in the context of the GMA. We can spend another 10 years fighting the Growth Management Hearings Board and what will it change?”

Sutton had told the Feb. 5 meeting of the Eastsound Planning Review Committee (EPRC) that he had related to Henrickson that morning, “This matter is far too legally complex to be working by email and phone,” and that the Sewer District insisted that the county correspond with it in writing.

“What’s troubling is that [the County] expects us to send a letter that amends the comp plan, and we can’t do that. We have to go back through the entire process with the DOE [Department of Ecology] and public hearings… and we have more pressing issues, a broken pipe on the North Shore and [maintenance] of the Orcas [treatment] plan,” Sutton said.

Fred Klein, in attendance at the EPRC meeting Feb. 5, suggested that “the County erred in adopting the entire ESWD plan. They should have adopted only those portions that are part of the UGA.”

Klein recommended either changing the sewer district map or modifying the county comprehensive plan.

At their meeting last Tuesday, sewer commissioners added that the line is not scheduled to be installed until 2014; and at the time the line was originally included in the plan, the Country Corner area was inside the UGA.

Further, the Sewer District commissioners said at their Feb. 10 meeting that septic systems are failing in the Country Corners area, contaminating the groundwater.

Miller asked if the county was responsible for the contamination of drinking water, and Stolmeier said that “right now,” that was the case. ESWD staff Sue Kimple said, “There are failed drainfields all over the Country Corner area, and we get effluent for treatment trucked in daily [to the ESWD treatment plant].

Miller asked, “Why don’t I hear the Department of Health weighing in on this?” and several commissioners said emphatically, “Good question!”

Stolmeier suggested several solutions:

1)  Modify the definition of “urban,” as has been done for power, water, police and fire agencies

2)  Redefine rural : “It’s completely undefined and yet we’re trying to protect it”

3)  Modify the boundaries back to their original lines

4)  Create some exception that allows the sewer district to prevent an environmental crisis

Miller asked, “what is so difficult about getting the players to the table to identify a goal and a solution?” and offered, as a member of the EPRC, to be an intermediary and “carry the ball.”

The sewer commissioners emphasized the importance of presenting their position directly to the Council.

Stolmeier made a motion requesting “a joint meeting with the County Council following a meeting with the Eastsound Water Users Board, to mitigate and prevent septic contamination of Eastsound ground water.”
The motion passed unanimously.

****************
At the Oct. 30, 2008 hearing preceding the GMHB deliberations, many questions from the board related to the County’s ability to regulate the extension of sewer lines into areas outside of the UGA.

Hearings Examiner Roehl asked “If I lived outside the UGA, and went to the sewer district and asked if I could hook up to a sewer line, does the County have the authority to require a permit to hook up?”

San Juan County Deputy Prosecutor JonCain replied, “Not that I know of.” The Hearings Board asked the County to provide information regarding what County permits were needed for sewer lines, including previous agreements that allow the sewer district a land franchise to install lines.

Lopez Island’s sewer district must also come into compliance with the GMA before the county is in full compliance, and is on a separate track from the Eastsound UGA issue, Cain said last year.