Issaquah Mayor Ava Frisinger took to the mic Monday night to assure residents of Issaquah and Sammamish that the city would never hurt its own water source.

In what is turning out to be an extremely contentious issue, Frisinger said a letter sent out by the Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District, dated May 20, “misstated facts about water quality and attempted to use scare tactics to further the agency’s own political agenda. Most of the letter was simply not true.”

The letter from the district speaks to the threat posed by the city of Issaquah to inject untreated storm water into the ground above an aquifer a short distance from well number nine. The well is one of several that provides water to residents in Sammamish and Issaquah. The district says that the storm water carries serious pollutants, including fecal coliform, which by state law does not belong in a groundwater aquifer.

The Washington State Department of Ecology is poised to issue a permit to Issaquah to allow the process. Frisinger said the state would never issue such a permit if it wasn’t safe.

Infiltration is “nothing new,” Frisinger said, stating that 430 storm water injection systems are registered in King County.

Keith Niven, the city’s economic development director, said storm water has been infiltrated in the area for 50 years.

“Safety is our top priority,” Frisinger said.

She said the water district is motivated by self-preservation because Tom Harman, president of the district’s board, doesn’t want Issaquah to annex neighboring Klahanie.

Jay Krauss, general manager of the water district, said the board of commissioners has no position on Klahanie. A recent annexation study states that there will be no change in water provider, (the district now provides water to Klahanie), but Krauss said the city of Issaquah plans to take it over.

“The state does encourage cities to provide utility services to everyone within its boundaries,” Frisinger said. “That is a normal function of municipalities.”

Someday, the city will study the impacts of providing that service to Klahanie at a potentially lower cost, Frisinger went on to say, but not without significant public process. Diane Marcotte, the city’s finance director, said state law provides for an assumption of water and sewer districts.

“It’s disappointing that the district is using fear to further its political agenda,” Frisinger said.

The public wasn’t so sure about Frisinger’s presentation.

Nick Garson, a licensed geologist who lives in Sammamish, is concerned about gasoline, oil, benzine and other chemicals in storm water, that are not tested for.

“Paint, pesticides, herbicides — water districts don’t have to test for these chemicals,” Garson said. “They are set up to monitor for coliform.”

Garson said ecology needs to study the matter further.

Krauss said the well in question – No. 9 – is of most concern. It hasn’t been used recently, but the water district plans to activate it from Nov. 1 through April 30 because they have to shut down wells seven and eight for service.

“Let’s not trivialize the value of a well,” Krauss said. “October is about the time infiltration will begin (if Ecology approves the permit) and that’s when the rain comes.”

Former Sammamish planning commissioner Scott Hamilton brought up the fact that Niven did not talk about fecal coliform, which he said will go through any sand filter.

“The assertion that this is about self-preservation and trying to stop the Klahanie annexation (is not founded),” Hamilton asserted. “Issaquah and the water district aren’t even talking to one another. There’s no dialogue — it’s a monologue.”

Krauss said as recently as March this year the water district offered to bring in a mediator. Issaquah didn’t respond. He also said in 2009 the water district had an agreement with the city, signed by Frisinger, to spend $400,000 to clean up the infiltration system. Nothing became of that, either.

Sammamish resident Corey Colwell-Lipson said she is concerned about health ramifications from dirty water.

“Politics shouldn’t come into something as important as our water,” she said. “The city is calling it a fear campaign, but this is our water. What’s more important than our water?”

Krauss said the district is committed to protecting the drinking water, and that it will resist any attempt at a hostile takeover of any portion of the district.

“I think Ecology is going to issue this permit, and the water is not going to get any cleaner,” he said.