05/12/2008: "New Threat Of Building Moratorium"

Stephen Ludwig of Lopez, and Dorothy Austin of Orcas, have filed a petition with the Growth Management Hearings Board (Board) asking the Board to stop San Juan County from allowing any additional development in the Eastsound area of Orcas that involves use of septic systems, unless the County can comply with the demands of the Board.

Ludwig and Austin have asked the Board to find the County non-compliant, and to issue a “determination of invalidity”; the result of which would give the Board the power to shut down development in the Eastsound, or -worse case- all of San Juan County.

The odds of this happening are very remote. The County is deeply involved in attempting to solve the “non-compliance” issue, and as long as the Board accepts the explanations and good-faith efforts of the County to reach compliance, the Board will continue to work with the County; as they have for nearly a decade now, in reaching compliance.

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Eastsound Sewer and Water District (ESWD) supplies sewer service to Eastsound and to Orcas landing. The ESWD is a public-owned, non-profit utility.

The problem results from the fact that the Board wants the County to have a plan, and action on the plan, to provide adequate utility service to any Urban Growth Area, and in the past the County has been reluctant to take on the job when a public company is already in the business; and doing it effectively and efficiently

While the ESWD’s sewer system is a properly operated, and an award winning system, they also supply service outside of the Eastsound Urban Growth Area (EUGA). But the Board does not want them supplying service outside of the EUGA. And the Board demands the County and the District sign an agreement on how, and where, service will be provided to the EUGA.

The District is not very interested in having the County involved in helping them run their organization, and in 2007 they sent a letter to the County stating the ESWD “respectfully declines to enter into a interlocal agreement with San Juan County pertaining to these matters.”

One problem the ESWD has with getting involved with the County is the State does not want the County to allow sewer service to be provided outside of the EUGA, and the District maintains that because they do provide sewer service, the Eastsound aquifer is protected from potential, or actual, pollution by on-site sewer systems. That is, the District protects the water they provide to their customers by collecting sewage from homes over the aquifer and treating it off site.

This is where things start to stink. If the District agrees to stop providing future service to properties outside of the EUGA (the ones on top of the aquifers), then those properties will be forced to install on-site septic systems, which Stolmeier states will pollute the drinking water of the District.

The standards for a water system are higher than then those an on-site system can meet. An on-site system is considred failing if, and only if, there is sewage on the surface of the ground, or if the system is backing up in the drain line and not draining out into the drain field.

Without sewer service, the property owners would have to apply for on-site septic permits for new construction. If the County were to refuse to issue an on-site permit, then the properties become un-buildable. And that brings up the question of what to do about all of the properties that are already connected to the Districts sewer system if they want to expand or if -and when- their system fails.

Mike Stolmeier is a Commissioner of the District, and stated “the problem is in the County trying to draw an arbitrary political line they call a UGA, and thinking they can prohibit our (the sewer & water) service outside of that area; when we know their is need for service outside of that area.” Stolmeier said "the County did not draw their UGA boundaries with respect to the infrastructure needs of the community.”

When the maps for the comprehensive plan were drawn, parts of the District’s service area were not included as part of the Eastsound Urban Growth Area, but the District has permission from the Environmental Protection Agency, the state Department of Ecology, and the Department of Health to provide service to properties outside of the EUGA.

That service provision is at odds with the Growth Management Act, and that is what the Western Washington Growth Management Hearing Board (Board), the SJC Community Development and Planning Department, and some citizens are concerned about, for what it does, among other things, is make development a bit more likely to occur. .

One of the Board members at the time all of this was going on, was Margery Hite, who raised the possibility that if progress was not made, it was within the power of the Board to impose a county wide moratorium on all building permits; a threat that CD&PD Director Ron Hendrickson has repeated to the SJC Council on a number of occasions.

But the real threat may come from the updating of the county Critical Areas Ordinance, which may prohibit or at least impose conditions on construction in a Critical Area, and one limitation could be that properties in a Critical Area must be connected to an approved sewer system, not an on-site system.