Needing more water for Eastsound

Sometime within the next 20 years, the Eastsound Water Users Association (EWUA) will need to obtain water from outside its boundaries. And the most logical place to get the additional water is Cascade Lake, according to board member Ed Sutton.

The EWUA’s need is the result of a provision of the Growth Management Act which states that the bulk of future residential development on Orcas Island should be located in Eastsound. It is accompanied by a projection that the population of Eastsound will be 2,300 in the year 2023. Yet even if the EWUA implements current plans to dig its reservoir deeper, and if it builds a second reservoir, the amount of water available to the association will only be able to serve 1,800 people.

That means another source of water will have to be found. Because Cascade Lake has enough water to comfortably serve a population of around 50,000, General Manager Ted Wixom says, the EWUA would like to be able to tap into that water source at some point, knowing that it will not threaten those who live in Rosario, Olga and Doe Bay. Rosario gets its water from both Cascade and Mountain lakes, while Olga and Doe Bay receive their water from Mountain Lake.

“We’re not here to steal your water,” Sutton told a group of about 20 islanders at a meeting at Rosario Resort Sept. 17. The meeting was sponsored by the San Juan County Water Resources Management Committee, a government entity which reports to the San Juan County Department of Health and Community Services. The committee is encouraging representatives of the more than a hundred water systems on Orcas Island “to work together in order to best manage the resource as a whole,” San Juan County Environmental Health Specialist Vicki Heater said.

Steve Deem, regional engineer with the state Department of Health, Drinking Water Division, pointed out that everybody on Orcas will benefit if there is sufficient water in Eastsound, because islanders come to the village to do their laundry, send their kids to school, eat in local restaurants, etc.

Deem said the extent of the problem can be lessened if everyone conserves water, while San Juan County Commissioner John Evans suggested that a solution lies in increasing storage capacity. Chris Vierthaler, manager of Rosario Utilities, asked about the possibility of recycling and reusing the water, but county Environmental Health Department Director Mark Tompkins answered that such a solution would cost too much money.

But even if all these water-saving and storage mechanisms were adopted, Eastsound would still need another source of water, Wixom said.

Some within the Water Resources Management Committee suggested creating a sub-committee that will explore the feasibility of an island-wide solution to Orcas’ water problems. But getting the representatives of all the water systems to agree on a common plan won’t be easy, Wixom said. “It would be complicated with just four associations (Eastsound, Rosario, Olga and Doe Bay),” he said, “but with a much larger configuration, it will be that much more complicated.”

Wixom’s views carried the day. The Water Resources Management Committee members eventually decided to limit it to representatives of the Eastsound, Rosario, Olga and Doe Bay systems, a representative from Moran State Park, those who are concerned with with stream and fish habitat issues, and two members of the general public.

Wixom believes that ultimately all the water systems on Orcas Island will have to figure out a way to work together, and that a plan will be developed that will get the support of the people of Orcas Island. The reason, he says, is because it will improve upon the current arrangement, which is both inefficient and costly. “Everyone is spending more,” Wixom said. “We’re all duplicating efforts.”

The recommendation will go to San Juan County commissioners, sometime in October. Assuming it is approved, the commissioners will then select the members.

Even if all goes according to plan, Tompkins says, it is too early to know when the first meeting of the sub-committee will take place.

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