When the Department of Ecology issued an Immediate Action Order against the city of Issaquah last week, city officials were taken by surprise to say the least.
The order requires the city to drill three new wells and implement a groundwater monitoring plan for the Lower Reid Infiltration Gallery. City officials say they plan to ask for a stay of the order, while they prepare an appeal and research what the plan would require and cost.
“Clearly the city is not happy with the order,” said Keith Niven, Major Development Program manager for the city. “It just doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t seem like the city got a fair shake.”
Department of Ecology officials on Wednesday stressed that there has been no proven wrongdoing, and that the order likely seems odd to city officials because it’s a unique situation.
“We want to reiterate that the Issaquah Highlands, due in large part to the city’s work with (Port Blakely), has a very promising and what appears to be a very fine stormwater system,” DOE spokesman Larty Altose said. “It’s an excellent stormwater system. … However, it’s a new system and it needs to be proved at least for a couple of years so that the drinking water is protected.”
Niven said the order effectively preempted a coming court hearing in an appeal of the city’s stage II stormwater permit filed by the Sammamish Plateau Water & Sewer District with the state Pollution Control Hearings Board. That hearing was set to happen next month.
“I think the unfortunate thing is that the DOE chose to initiate the order without sitting down with the city and trying to work through any concerns that they had,” Niven said. “From a procedural standpoint, I don’t think the city can help but feel that we were bushwhacked.”
They’re also worried on behalf of ratepayers, who would eventually foot the bill in one way or another if the city does have to drill the wells and start the considerable two-year monitoring program.
“We’re still waiting for some technical merits about why we should be jumping through some additional hoops and drilling extra wells and charging ratepayers extra money,” Niven said.
While city officials are disgruntled, water district representatives consider the DOE order a step in the right direction.
“We kind of consider that it’s a victory for us, effectively,” said Ron Little, manager of the water and sewer district. “Basically what the DOE is ordering Issaquah to do is about 85 percent” of what district officials hoped to see when they filed the appeal. The district’s board on Monday decided to ask the Pollution Control Hearings Board for a continuance while the DOE order is sorted out.
The facts that led to the dispute between the city and the district started many years ago, when development began in the Issaquah Highlands. Water district officials say that stormwater and runoff from the Highlands threatens the aquifer. They say their own monitoring has shown contaminants including coliform bacteria in the aquifer, about 600 feet from the district’s No. 9 well. The district has opted not to pump from that well during the ongoing investigation and legal proceedings. Officials say the district has spent more than $2,000 each time they sample the water, which has added up to 10s of thousands spent on water monitoring and hundreds of thousands spent on the process and legal proceedings.
According to a 2007 agreement with the water district and the Department of Ecology, Highlands developer Port Blakely Communities was to put in a groundwater monitoring plan. Instead, Port Blakely met some alternate conditions and transferred ownership and operation of the Highlands stormwater system to the city last fall. The monitoring wells were never installed.
City officials say they have seen no data that would cause them to worry about the effects of the Highlands stormwater on drinking water.
“Before stormwater is allowed to enter the gallery, it is controlled by a number of factors, such as: limitations on the use of pesticides and herbicides, restrictions on the use of metal-leaching materials such as copper and galvanized building materials, hundreds of feet of bioswales (grassy channels used to clean stormwater), settling of sediments in large detention ponds and a petroleum alarm used to detect gasoline spills,” Issaquah officials wrote in a press release.
Despite those efforts, water district officials don’t feel that the city has taken care with the aquifer.
“The city of Issaquah administration never considered the effects on the water quality in the Lower Reid Infiltration Gallery,” Little said. “We never saw anywhere that the city or the consultants said,’What is this going to do to water quality?’”
He agrees that those who live in the Highlands have good environmental practices.
“But, they still have cars, pets and lawns,” he said. “Urban stormwater from the Issaquah Highlands is no better than urban stormwater from anywhere else. … It’s not suitable to be drunk. That’s been our position all along.”
The Lower Reid Infiltration Gallery is an underground system that recharges the aquifer under Issaquah with 205 million gallons of stormwater per year.
“Thanks to this innovative system, the city helps replenish a source of drinking water for Issaquah, ensures area wetlands receive the water they need to survive and prevents an undue burden on the North and East Forks of Issaquah Creek,” Issaquah Mayor Ava Frisinger said. “It’s disheartening, however, that this recent order could become a disincentive to communities that are concerned about sustainability and environmental improvements.”
