In a victory for thoughtful planning, the County Council on Oct. 20 unanimously denied an application for a franchise to construct a private waterline to move water from Crow Valley agricultural lands to a proposed subdivision in the separate Eastsound watershed.

The question before the council was whether the proposal was in the public interest.

The applicant invited the council to limit its inquiry to just the hole in the dirt for the waterline. The council refused that invitation and asked whether all of the impacts of the waterline, including the transfer of up to 10 gallons per minute from farmland to a residential subdivision, were in the public interest.

The answer was “no.”

This decision agreed with concerns that Friends of the San Juans, neighbors and the Agricultural Resource Committee had expressed since March, as well as during the course of the council’s two hearings on the issue.

Those concerns focused on issues such as the limited water supplies in the Crow Valley area near the proposed wellhead, the impacts of removal of up to 14,400 gallons of water per day from use for designated agricultural lands, the changing amounts of water the applicant purported to use for the proposed subdivision, the impacts to important wetlands, and impacts to salmon-bearing streams.

At a time when housing development is eating into farmland and our totemic salmon and orca are slipping toward extinction, these concerns were not only eminently reasonable, but required reading for the water-use decision.

And the council correctly agreed and issued a decision that effectively rejected accusations that concerned neighbors suffered from ignorance and fear.

The impacts of this decision reach well beyond the request to dig a trench.

The council’s concern over the franchise emphasizes that appropriate water use is a critical issue in the islands. Water is already a scarce resource in many of our communities.

As applications for subdivisions continue to march through county doors, this scarcity likely will place a focus on two developing private water supply trends: (1) waterlines, and (2) desalination plants.

Just as the council did here, we must properly evaluate all of the impacts that these proposals would trigger.

And particularly for desalination proposals, we must review impacts to marine ecosystems, especially where concentrated saltwater would discharge to shallow bays with poor flushing action.

If you are concerned about water use and planning in the county, please join Friends of the San Juans and our Water Protection Campaign.

Through newsletter and action alert emails, we will keep you posted on important issues impacting your community.

Kyle Loring is the staff attorney

for the Friends of the San Juans

organization, based in Friday Harbor.