Port Orchard makes water rights a priority in watershed planning

With several water rights applications still in the queue at the Department of Ecology, Port Orchard has a lot to gain if the proposed countywide water management plan works as expected.

The plan, currently being developed by the Kitsap Peninsula Watershed Planning Unit — a group of representatives from every major jurisdiction in the greater Kitsap Peninsula, including Mason County, Gig Harbor and Vashon Island — is being paid for by the state as a way to take some of the burden off Ecology.

As the city knows firsthand, the DOE can take a decade or more to approve water rights for new wells. The delay, reportedly due to understaffing at the department, puts intense pressure on Port Orchard, which is legally obligated to provide water to its constantly growing population.

The intent of the plan is to give governments and utilities joined under a single Water Resource Inventory Area, or WRIA, a chance to get to know their own water resources and perhaps find a compromise that will let everyone get the water they need while at the same time keeping Ecology and the resident fish happy.

Under the rules laid down by the state, in order for the plan to work, everyone has to agree. One dissenting vote will void the whole planning document and everybody goes back to standing in line.

Not surprisingly, many at the city are determined not to let this happen.

“I want to emphasize how important this project is going to be — especially if we can get past the veto issue,” said city engineer Larry Curles, addressing the Port Orchard City Council last month.

The council invited the county’s natural resource coordinator Keith Folkerts to the council’s last regular meeting to brief it on the group’s progress. Many council members seemed unaware of the group’s efforts and focused their questions on the city’s right to protect its own interests.

Curles, who has been representing the city in the planning unit said the process was really less about the city getting exactly what it wanted and more about working together to benefit all those involved.

“We’re looking behind our own little area at: ‘How can we share it?’” Curles said. “Because you have to share it. That’s something we’ve been struggling against.”

South Kitsap resident Vivian Henderson, representing the Kitsap Alliance of Property owners in the planning unit, has been one of the few to speak against the presumption that water rights should be divvied up in this way.

Henderson said she was worried the unit’s deliberations essentially shut out everyday citizens because of the highly technical information discussed.

“It’s far beyond what regular people can understand,” Henderson said.

She said she believes the public needs to be involved because the decisions made by the WRIA group could have a profound impact on land-use planning in the future.

In fact, KAPO believes the controlling land use is the real priority of the planning unit, rather than studying available water resources.

“KAPO is in support of the objective of determining what the county’s water resources are,” said KAPO co-founder Karl Duff, who has also represented KAPO at the planning meetings. “But it’s become so political ... it’s going to be a surprise if we find out anything about water use.”

Both Henderson and Duff are also worried that if the studies determine there is not enough water to go around, tribes’ water rights and fish will take precedence over people.

Curles said the city is aware of KAPO’s concerns and admitted that, even though the citizens don’t have a direct veto — a primary complaint from KAPO members — the plan’s eventual success will depend on the governments’ ability to sell its goals to their residents. He said the city shares some of KAPO’s goals, though not all of their concerns.

Curles believes all issues and claims can be addressed through the planning process, but said the city’s top priority is making sure it gets the water it needs to serve its residents.

“We’re there at that meeting to come up with a program so that urban areas can get water rights,” he said.

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