Public Hearing Thursday, June 28

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Hi, All! We are down to the wire now. Do you want to try to preserve our rural way of life? Or, give up?

 We need you to make a comment, no matter how small, or attend the public hearing, Thursday, at the Sequim Community Church, 5th Avenue. Posters, info, and open house at 3:30. Presentation, followed by hearing, starting at 6 PM. Do you know people who live on, or off, Bagley Creek Road, Deer Park, up in Happy Valley, Texas Valley, Blue Mountain, Sutter Rd, South up Hooker or Taylor Cut-Off–if you are West of Sieberts Creek, or South of the irrigation diversions, and you have not put your well to beneficial use, you will not be able to buy outside water.

 Do you understand the Water Exchange? Can you tell your clients how much mitigation fee they will have to pay? Or, how much outside water they can buy? This Water Rule is not ready. The questions are not answered. I’ve attached the letter from the Port Angeles Business Association. There are many other letters and comments. You can go to www.sequimwater.com and get more information. Please don’t sit this one out. If water is not important to you, what is? It’s one evening out of your life. Or, 15 minutes out of your day, to write an email.

 Thank you! Emails can go to Ann Wessel, WA State Department of Ecology, awes461@ecy.wa.gov

 Marguerite

DOE Changes Venue For Meeting

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Ecology is extending the hours for the Open House on the Water Resource Management Program Rule Proposal.  Doors will open at 3:30 pm on Thursday, June 28th  with staff available to answer questions regarding specific properties as well as other questions.  The presentation and question and answer session will remain at the original time of 6:00 pm followed by the public hearing.

 A new location for the event has been arranged to accommodate a large number of attendees who would like to talk with staff and/or get their specific questions answered.  The Open House/Public Hearing will be held at the Sequim Community Church, 950 North Fifth Avenue in Sequim. 

Please plan to attend this very important meeting.

More thoughts on water rights

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Marguerite:  “There are some very scary things about the new water rule. Several of our members have said, “it’s all about the money. Follow the money.” The comments below are from Bill Clarke, attorney versed in water law. He brings up one of the BIG unknowns, with the Water Rule, and the Water Exchange. You know that no dollar figures are spelled out, in the Rule–nor is how the Exchange will actually work..  

Bill Clarke:  “ My opinion is that one of the major flaws/risks in this rule is the same issue that Ecology has mishandled in other basins:  adopting rules banning exempt wells before the mitigation program is actually in place and functioning.  In Kittitas, Ecology created a new market for mitigation water rights by prohibiting new exempt wells, and this gave significant value to water rights already in the trust water program from Suncadia, and created a new market for for-profit water banks.  In Skagit, the concept of mitigation was put in the rule but no mitigation program or options were ever approved by Ecology.   A risk in Dungeness is that since there seems to be only one mitigation “seller,” that seller could wait until the reserves are eliminated before seeing what buyers are willing to pay – ie, remember the saying “you’ll know the worth of water when the well runs dry.”

Welcome to Sequim Water

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Hi! I’m Marguerite Glover. My husband and I have lived in Sequim for 34 years. We love the climate, trees, mountains, rivers, saltwater, birds, animals, and people! I first became involved in water studies and water use, as a member of the Sequim Bay Watershed Management Committee, back in the late 1980′s. After that, I was on the Dungeness River Management Committee, which eventually became the Dungeness River Management Team (DRMT), and on Clallam County’s Groundwater Committee. I was an alternate for the Business Caucus, on the Dungeness-Quilcene Regional Planning Group (the D-Q Project), which finished their work in 1994.

Water is vital to life, and that is why all civilizations settled around rivers or the sea. Everything we do, on the ground, affects water; and, we ALL live downstream! I was busy, and burned out on meetings (all of these groups had many, many meetings!), and did not participate much, in WRIA 18, until I became a member of the Water Working Group. I attended those meetings, starting in about 2007. Once the public was invited to the Local Leaders’ Working Group, I started attending those meetings, as well.

Your Water Rights

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Over 22,000 of these postcards mailed to affected property owners.

Welcome to SequimWater.com!  The site was created to inform property owners of their rights and the Department of Ecology Draft Rule which affects their water rights throughout the Dungeness Valley in Sequim, WA.  As Sequim celebrates 117 years of irrigation of this valley “Where Water Is Wealth”, the DOE set in place its draft rule affecting water rights.  Get informed and contact DOE with your questions and plan to attend the public meetings.