Snohomish County is proposing an entirely new code section 30.30—Water Code.  This code is intended as a work around to the Hirst Decision and will allow an explosion of development to occur in the rural parts of the County, outside of the Urban Growth Area (UGA) by encouraging water well construction.  This is a horrible code!

This code if passed will create an Oklahoma-like development land rush in rural Snohomish County.  Industrial sites, strip malls, and rural cluster residential developments will start popping up everywhere.  In turn, our rural streams that are replenished by groundwater will suffer, especially in drought conditions when streams dry up because the groundwater has been stolen by development.  This will only get worse with time and the continued adverse effects of climate change.

In the Supreme Court Case Whatcom County v. Hirst, the Court concluded that Whatcom County’s comprehensive plan violated the GMA and failed to protect the availability of surface and groundwater resources, because Whatcom County allowed permit-exempt appropriations to inhibit minimum flows. Minimum flows are “flows or levels to protect instream flows necessary for fish and other wildlife, recreation and aesthetic purposes, and water quality.”  Withdrawals exempt from permit requirements include any withdrawal that does not exceed 5,000 gallons a day. Established in 1945, this encouraged the development and settlement of family farms that drew between 200 and 1,500 gallons of water per day. The legislature enacted the GMA in 1991 to address growing concerns about rapid growth and development across the state and its impact on minimum flows. Because the GMA requires counties to “protect the rural character of the area” through their land use planning, the Court concluded that the GMA required the County to make determinations of water availability before issuing permits.

There will be no shortage of consultants, that for a fee, will certify no impact from water well withdrawals.  And Snohomish County will just rubber stamp these consultant reports and approve unfettered rural development.  Water well construction in rural areas is the main limit to urbanizing growth in the rural areas; SCC 30.30 will remove this limit.

This code is so bad, it really needs to be scrapped entirely and re-written.  New wells in the rural portions of the County should not be allowed exceed 1,500 gallons per day, which is more than adequate for a single-family residence.