The County Council met on Orcas Island Monday, Sept. 29, and heard at length both from applicants for a public right-of-way franchise that would start the process of authorizing a 3.5-mile water pipeline from a well in Crow Valley, and from opponents of that application.

The Lundeen Room of the Senior Center was filled to overflowing with members of the public.

County Public Works Director Jon Shannon described the proceeding as an application for a franchise to use the public right of way for utility purposes – in this case, a water pipeline.

The hearing, Shannon said, was to determine if it is in the public interest to grant the franchise.

The applicants are a brother and sister and their respective spouses. Woody Vanvalkenburgh, the spokesperson for the group, is President and CEO of Rappahannock Goodwill Industries. His wife Nancy is a retired school teacher, his sister Blaire and her Husband, Bob, are professors at UCLA. Vanvalkenburgh stated that they have sought the franchise and pipeline to bring water to their 108-acre property (a 28-acre waterfront parcel and an 80-acre upland parcel) on Dolphin Bay Road They purchased the property in 2006.

Two wells drilled on the land were “marginal producers” of 1,300 gallons per day said Vanvalkenburgh, and the owners questioned the wisdom of drilling an additional eight wells on their property in the face of the uncertain yield.

They also said that to drill the wells would scar the heavily forested land, and that there was the potential of arsenic contamination in the wells drilled on their property.

According to their attorney, Reed Langenbach, public interest is not the same thing as public use, and the hearing was not “a general discussion of water use and availability,” which were matters to be discussed during the long-plat application. Langenbach maintained that the environmental issues brought up the Friends of the San Juans in a letter to the county relate to the long-plat application.

A long plat will enable the owners to divide the property into parcels and obtain water memberships for use of the transported well water. The pipeline would facilitate the creation of a Class B water system, which provides 15 connections or less.

The owners “hope to sell as many parcels as we need to finance the purchase of the land,” according to owner Vanvalkenburgh. Plans for the application of the franchise are “one more step in a process we didn’t mean to get into,” he said.

Local planning consultant Jeff Otis described the platting process, coordinated by the County Development and Planning Department, with the conditions set by the Department of Health and reviewed by the county and state, before going before the Hearing Examiner, who looks at such items as delineation of wetlands, environmental impacts, stormwater plan review, public access, and open space requirements. “If the applicant can’t demonstrate compliance with these standards, the water line will be denied,” Otis said.

Bob Eagan, certified water system manager of CRM Inc, said that the subject well on Crow Valley property had showed that a sustainable yield could be obtained over a three-day period and “fully recovered in a reasonable period of time.”

Langenbach submitted copies of letters from Century Tel and OPALCO and adjacent neighbors of the applicants, expressing their desire to participate in the pipeline utility.

Council member Gene Knapp questioned the test of the subject well, noting that the test time period was “less than one percent of the year.” Council member Bob Myhr noted that the water right application had not been granted, and that it would be limited to 14 hookups.

Public comment

When the hearing was opened for public comment, most who spoke were opposed to granting the franchise, and many challenged the opinion issued by the Prosecutors’ office that the franchise decision was a narrow matter, such as described by Deputy Prosecutor Karen Vetter in a Sept. 5 memo to the County Council.

Crow Valley property owner Jerry Leone said that the Clark Family’ attorney maintains that the SJ County Prosecutor is “dead wrong” in applying the public interest standard narrowly; that “the council is not relieved of considering the application in a broad context,” including the transfer of water from agricultural to developmental use.”

Katy Loring, Friday Harbor attorney for Mary Kinsey, stated that public interest is not an “entitlement.”

“It’s for you to determine if it’s in the public interest. Many factors go in to the determination of public interest, including mode and consequences,” she said.

Many of those giving public testimony agreed with Carol Mount Clark, a 63-year resident of the county, that the project “threatens all farmers in Crow Valley” and feared a water shortage.

Dana Kinsey presented information indicating that the proposed line crosses two watersheds and diverts water to the east, when its natural flow pattern is to the south and west, and would affect an area of “limited amount of foodshed production on Orcas.”

She also said that a waterline would involve blasting through rock, creating air pollution and noise.

Much of the public comment agreed with Katherine Taylor, who challenged the applicants to “make the case as to why [their application] is in the public interest.”

However, Don Webster, a property owner adjacent to the applicant’s property, said that granting the franchise and the resultant pipleine would protect a heavily forested area of the island.

Because of some ambiguity in announcing the day of the council meeting, Prosecuting Attorney Randy Gaylord advised the council to keep the hearing open for written testimony. The council agreed to do so, and planned to meet again on Oct. 20 to deliberate the matter. Council member Alan Lichter requested that the meeting be held on Orcas Island, and the Council and staff agreed to do so.