Issaquah residents can breathe easier about the safety of the city’s drinking water.

Speaking at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, council President Paul Winterstein said there was an “element of uncertainty” to injecting storm water from the Issaquah Highlands into the Lower Reid Infiltration Gallery (LRIG). The area is a football-field size piece of land that sits above an aquifer and is 600-feet from one of three wells owned by the Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District that are in Issaquah.

The council agreed unanimously to approve a memorandum of agreement signed on Jan. 13 by Issaquah Mayor Fred Butler and Jay Krauss, general manager of the water district, to resolve what has been a very contentious topic.

The LRIG will be decommissioned, with the district agreeing to contribute $1 million toward the decommission and building a new storm water management system that will not connect to the aquifer.

The council also authorized Butler to execute an agreement regarding the timing of any possible assumption of the district’s service in Issaquah.

The memorandum states that if the city wants to assume all or part of the district’s service in Issaquah within 10 years of the effective date of an interlocal agreement yet to be drawn up, the city would only do so with the district’s consent. Within three years, the city and the district, along with Sammamish, will discuss governance and delivery options for utility services.

The council also authorized the city administration to negotiate the interlocal agreement with the water district, which would be presented to them at the March 17 meeting.

Former City Council member Hank Thomas, who has been against the infiltration plan from the beginning, said he was pleased with the decision, but he asked the council to consider going back to the original developer of the Issaquah Highlands, Port Blakely, to do something to mitigate the stormwater issue.

Port Blakely was warned as early as 1999 to pay more attention to its stormwater control systems due to concerns that runoff could be dirtying Issaquah Creek and threatening the city’s water supply. Currently the runoff goes into the North Fork of Issaquah Creek.

Last year Thomas told The Reporter “All they knew was water went into the ground and you’ll never see it again.”

Likewise, Issaquah resident and business owner Connie Marsh was pleased that the LRIG was going to be decommissioned, but added that the stormwater going into the North Fork without a State Environmental Policy Act report was troubling.

Lloyd Warren, one of the commissioners with SPWSD, said its board approved the same agreement earlier in the day, adding that while there was still work to do, he urged the council to put this issue behind them.