||| FROM EWUA PUBLIC UTILITY PETITION COMMITTEE* |||
More than 50 EWUA memberships have signed a petition supporting a formal, non binding evaluation of whether Eastsound’s water utility should be transferred to public ownership through the Eastsound Sewer and Water District (ESWD).
Bringing water and sewer together could offer important community benefits:
- Shared operators, equipment, facilities, administration, emergency response, and long-term planning.
- Access to public grants, loans, and infrastructure-financing opportunities.
- Governance by elected commissioners, with public meetings, public records, independent state audits, and public-agency requirements.
- Coordinated planning for water supply, wastewater treatment, fire protection, infrastructure, and future community needs.
ESWD has confirmed that it is legally authorized to own and operate a water system. It has also confirmed that it would participate in nonbinding discussions concerning the operation or potential acquisition of EWUA’s water system if approached by a duly authorized and elected EWUA Board.
Any potential transfer would depend on appropriate due diligence—and that is exactly what this petition is intended to begin.
Before EWUA members can make an informed decision, we need reliable information about rates, assets, debts, reserves, water rights, employees, operations, governance, and the approvals required for any potential transfer.
The petition asks the EWUA Board to call a Special Meeting so the membership can vote on instructing the Board to begin this feasibility and due-diligence process with ESWD.
Signing the petition does not approve a transfer, merger, dissolution, rate change, or assumption of debt. Any final proposal would have to be developed, disclosed to members, and considered after the facts and terms are known.
The goal is simple: determine whether public ownership would be a better path forward—and give EWUA members the information needed to decide.
Sign the petition
https://www.signwell.com/new_
Please have your EWUA account number and service/property address available. Submit one petition for each EWUA Membership Agreement in good standing that you are authorized to represent.
We need petition signatures representing at least 10% of eligible votes to require a Special Meeting. Please share this article and petition with other EWUA members.
*COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Emmett Adam
Brett Bartmasser
Brooke Budner
James Most
Sara Joy Palmer
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Thank you for your good works, EWUA petition committee members – what wonderful news that there is a Public petition that all members can sign to show commitment and support for asking for willingness by EWUA board to begin the non binding talks with ESWD. I wish I could sign – but though I use the water every day due to no other choice by living in low income apartments in the Urban Growth Area (UGA), I am not a member. I can still show support here on the Orcasonian and state and why I would sign as a member. I hope this will generate good thought and discussion about the benefits laid out above.
Unfortunately, many of us in clustered low income rental housing in the Urban Growth Area (UGA) are not individual members – partly because there is no subsidy for the very poor individually to help us pay urban type utilities like water and still pay all the other bills, including rent. There are no sliding scale payments by income, for one – even though most living in the UGA in clustered housing are likely low to low-middle income renters including service workers. If we were counted, I’m guessing that there would be many more signatures. I personally think that anyone using the water because they have no other option for bathing and drinking, ought to be given voice by EWUA, including with this petition.
ESWD and OPALCO charge every member a monthly fee plus usage – as does EWUA. It’s very high when you consider the incomes of most of these people. As in all land use plans with a UGA structure, the people least able to afford are who actually pay for the service without sliding scale. OPALCO, in all fairness, offers Project Pal (up to maximum $12 a year extra on your bill if you round up each month) and Energy Assist, which helps offset costs. The Resource Center helps us with other grant programs, but nothing is in place for all electric and ESUA water usage in tandem.
EWUA – you’re a private utility or a limited essential resource – how come you don’t have something in place like this? How come there are no incentives from both utilities to conserve on USAGE of power and water, and grants to help with them?
As stated above, we can do a lot with this move if it should become possible and desired by all entities. We could have more voice as stakeholders. As non members who are considered non stakeholders, we don’t get to have this voice – though we can still attend board meetings.
A question for everyone, or at least all EWUA members to ponder:
Water is our most treasured and necessary non- renewable resource. Would you support the idea that all who must use EWUA’s water (because there is no other choice) ought to have a voice in how it is cared for, treated, the costs, usage, incentives, and what happens environmentally with such projects as the Clark Well? If not, I wonder what alternatives you would propose, especially those of you living outside of the UGA. For many of us, it’s the only water we can drink or use for baths or showers. Many people have chlorine and other chemical sensitivities, yet we have no voice or choice in this, and some of us cannot afford to buy bottled water (plastics) or a water delivery service (and now those come in plastic as well.)
What I ‘d love to see are grants and incentives for low income people (which includes most of the workers as well as the poor and fixed income elderly here in the UGA) to attain in- house water filters! Or at the very least, stainless steel countertop filters for drinking water available to all who need them until bigger grants can be secured. Let us dream big!
We are a creative and resourceful community. We could do it. People generally prefer to volunteer when they think their work could be of some lasting use and a positive influence benefitting the many rather than just a few.
I could go on with all the seeming unrelated stuff, such as deforestation creating desertification and both cool season flooding and warm season drought /water shortages depending on season, but I’m sure most people are sick of hearing me go on about the environment and Quality of Life (again!)
I hope the members of EWUA near and far will sign this petition and that these talks can get going. I also ask that the governing board of EWUA consider how many more rental low income housing tenants would have a voice – if they really wanted to hear ours – and consider doing the right and generous thing by letting us sign this petition.
We have another opportunity to take a look at this as it affects utility use and who actually pays the most, percentage-wise to their income and usage, regarding a fair structure that can help not just us but next generations.
One more point that may seem unrelated to this discussion, but is related: Younger first time home owners without disposable income. OPAL project houses such as OPAL Commons, Bonnie Brae, Wild Rose Meadow, etc….
They have all the responsibilities of owning a house including repairs, property maintenance, buying new appliances when theirs break down. They pay a lot with all the utilities. In many cases, they have no recourse if something goes really wrong. they need to be included and considered in any discussion because they know how it really is to juggle all of this along with raising children, school costs, etc. It would be great to see incentives or grants to help them out with all these many utility expenses. Thanks
Thank you, committee members, for your diligent and important work. But you left out one VERY important advantage of a merger with ESWD. It would bring us a manager with decades of experience managing much larger sewer and water systems than anything on Orcas Island. He also has extensive experience managing multimillion-dollar improvement projects and in obtaining state and federal grants to help pay for them. The current EWUA general manager came with only a background in marketing and public relations — which we have witnessed in spades these past few years. One result is the cost overruns that have been experienced on the Clark Well project, which will eventually come out of member pockets’.
PS. I have signed the petition and urge all concerned EWUA members to do likewise.
Thank you for the unofficial notes. I am sure they cover more than the board’s notes will include. I have signed the petition. I think it would be a great improvement to have the water company run by people who prefer not to keep members in the dark and make monumental decisions without considering members’ opinions. Decisions like raising rates and buying office buildings with board members’ financing, without anyone knowing until the deal is done, seem a little conspiratorial to me. The members should not be kept in the dark and have no say in their own company!
And I’ve signed the petition as well. Perhaps this would be a good time to create an audit committee from our membership, to further understand how our EWUA moved from holding a seven figure cash reserve in 2019 to our current situation (and I noticed that our salaries and benefits have nearly tripled since then as well).
Pity the present EWUA Board has not performed its oversight role in our water system’s governance…a good longtime friend of our GM has said to me, “…well…he’s a nice guy but I’d never let him get near a pile of money”