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Water and Growth
Tuesday, October 10, 2000
Winning water rights puts builders in a bind
JOHN DODGE, THE OLYMPIAN THURSTON COUNTY -- Questions about water supply are already stopping some rural housing projects dead in their tracks.
Several subdivisions are on hold in the Deschutes River basin south of the urban area, and the county isn't even accepting projects in the Scatter Creek watershed, notes county water-resources specialist Tom Clingman.
New development stymied by water supply is a phenomenon playing out across the state.
Projects that use more than 5,000 gallons of water a day -- enough for six homes or more -- require a state water right to drill a new well.
The state Department of Ecology issues water rights, but it has a backlog of requests that is 7,000 statewide, 1,100 in southwest Washington and 53 in the Deschutes River basin, which includes most of Thurston County.
It can take years to get a water right processed. Even then, the request to drill a new well may be turned down. Here is the four-pronged test that must be passed to get one:
-Is it a beneficial use of water?
-Is it in the public interest?
-Is water available?
-Would the water withdrawal impair an existing water right?
The difficulty in obtaining water rights is starting to steer larger housing projects into the urban area where water is available, says Bob Patrick, principal planner for Landmark Inc. of Olympia.
"You can't afford to get in line for a water right," Patrick says. "Water supply is a deciding factor in where growth will occur."
Caught in backlog
Countrywood Estates, a 112-lot subdivision on 130 acres just south of Lacey's urban growth boundary, is an example of a project without water.
The developer, Jackson Homes of Olympia, applied to Ecology more than two years ago for water rights to drill two wells, project engineer Steve Chamberlain says.
Unable to get timely action, the developer went shopping for an existing water right to buy, something Ecology encourages developers to do.
Jackson found a willing seller in Vic Kaufman, who owned water rights for the former Hofert Tree Farm near Tumwater.
Jackson took his proposed transfer to the Thurston County Water Conservancy Board, a three-member citizens panel established this year to process water right transfers.
The board endorsed the transfer, despite objections from Lacey and Tumwater city officials who didn't want a water right in the urban growth area transferred to the rural area, claiming it was counter to anti-sprawl goals set in the state Growth Management Act.
The plat was approved by the county in December 1999 and meets the requirements of the county's growth management plan, Chamberlain notes.
"It's a simple, non-controversial transfer to the fringe of the urban growth boundary," he says. "And the project doesn't impact the Deschutes River."
But the transfer came to a grinding halt on Sept. 8 when Thurston County Superior Court Judge Dan Berschauer ruled conservancy boards don't have legal authority to process water-rights transfers involving a change of use of the water.
In the case of Countrywood Estates, the transfer of 20 million gallons per year from the old tree farm to the new subdivision qualifies as a change of use.
Ecology hasn't decided whether to appeal the ruling or ask the state Legislature to clarify the role of the conservancy boards, agency spokeswoman Mary Getchell says.
Meanwhile, Countrywood Estates is back in limbo.
"We've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars so far and have all the necessary building permits, except water," Chamberlain says. "The landowner is caught in a trap."
The Seattle-based Center for Environmental Law and Policy, an environmental group, brought the lawsuit that led to Berschauer's ruling.
Center director Rob Caldwell says the conservancy boards are ill-suited to deal with water rights. Instead, the state Legislature should give Ecology the staff and funding to speed up water-rights requests.
More important, he says, new wells that harm rivers and streams must be denied.
About 450 lakes and streams in this state are partially or completely closed to further withdrawals, including the Deschutes and Nisqually rivers, he notes.
"We need to acknowledge that we are depleting the resource and that groundwater and surface water are inextricably linked," he says.
The Olympian Copyright 2000 back to main Water and Growth index
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