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To County Commissioners,
Please consider a mandatory plan for future water availability as you go forward with zoning considerations. I am attaching the notes of my comments regarding the Port Hadlock Sewer
design. The information is the same. We need to safely house people and to assure them a secure future water supply.
Research in the rain shadow shows that some areas have water rights but not water availability. One recent conversation on Nextdoor was about wells possibility going dry, right now,
in the Oak Bay Area. Water rights are not water availability. Homes and people need actual water availability. Long term assessment and planning for future water use in the rain shadow
must be part of this land use discussion.
Rita
Port Hadlock Sewer Project.
Include consideration for climate change and water availability.
The Port Hadlock sewer design is strong and environmentally sensitive in significant ways. You should approve, with contingencies, including a mandate to establish a formal planning
process to ensure future drinking water availability for current and new sewer users. Please add the following comments and consider the suggestions.
This sewer system correctly focuses on treating used water, cleaning, and recycling. Jefferson County PUD#1 will supply the water going into the Port Hadlock homes for normal uses.
However, Port Hadlock is in the well-known “rain shadow zone”. Engineers anticipate sufficient water rights to serve the current and increased population in this growth management
area, according to Bill Graham at PUD #1.
However, Mr. Graham explained that by water rights “I mean: our legal right to use a specific quantity of the water of the state of Washington from a particular body of water at a particular
location for a particular use. There is no "prediction of availability" that's a part of the approved connections calculation”. Graham further noted that there has been a small but
significant drop in rainfall over recent decades.
Here is what the data looks like for nearby Chimacum:
1991-2020 --- 28.67 inches/yr.
1981-2010 --- 28.78 inches/yr.
Not really a significant difference. More relevant is the combined winter and fall precipitation:
1991-2020 --- 18.09 inches
1981-2010 --- 18.33 inches
“That's a little more concerning”, said Mr. Graham.
Data from the Western Regional Climate Center at https://wrcc.dri.edu/ <https://wrcc.dri.edu/>
According to a recent posting on the PUD#1 website “Despite recent bouts of unprecedented rain, eastern Jefferson County ranks as one of the driest coastal communities in the Lower
48”.
From: https://www.jeffpud.org/water-supply-in-a-rainshadow-world/ <https://www.jeffpud.org/water-supply-in-a-rainshadow-world/>
There is long standing documentation of quality concerns. These include increased seawater intrusion and continuing numbers of groundwater wells going dry or becoming too salty to
use safely without threatening public health in rain-shadow areas of Jefferson County.
https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/publications/documents/wsb59.pdf
Seawater intrusion protection zone (SIPZ) regulation attempted some improvements. https://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/666/Seawater-Intrusion-Policy
However, Jefferson County PUD#1 has no access to mountain snowmelt, or the impounded city water system. County and city officials have taken no regulatory action to minimize or mitigate
the ongoing water quantity challenges in the rain-shadow areas.
Contingency/mandate Suggestions: Coordination, cooperation, new building codes.
1. Coordination: This sewer plan assumes water availability.
That is a risky assumption. Assuming that climate change will not impact the groundwater serving Port Hadlock might leave current and future residents without adequate potable water.
In the past Port Townsend and Jefferson County officials cooperated to allow area water service to access county groundwater and/or use collected city water, as seasonally appropriate.
Before finalizing this sewer process, you should reconsider sensible cooperation for climate change protection, and to assure long-term potable water availability for the current and
future Port Hadlock residents.
2. Cooperation: City and County water specialists should work together to encourage the Port Townsend Mill to continue improving conservation and reducing water usage, making more
water available for human uses.
3. Protective Building Codes: Require, as part of this sewer approval, that Jefferson County start the process to radically improve building codes to minimize waste water and water
waste. Improved codes must require discontinuing unnecessary, inappropriate, uses of potable water, monitoring for leaks, while encouraging conservation.
In addition to providing safe sewage collection and treatment, consider adding the goal to assure clean drinking water in the future as the climate changes. It is too dangerous to
assume that clean drinking water will be available for people using this well-designed sewage treatment system. It could be wise as well as politically advantageous to add these suggested
mandates, for a climate-changed future, in the rain shadow area that already experiences the low rainfall and high surface evaporation of many desert areas.
Respectfully submitted August 29, 2022.
Rita Marie Kepner, Ph.D.
8643 Flagler Rd. Nordland WA 98358
ST ADMINISTRATIVE GROUP/CN=RECIPIENTS/CN=MSCHRYVER