INSIDE

Water taps still turned off

By Meg Olson

The tap is still shut at the Point Roberts water district after commissioners approved another extension to the moratorium on new connections or certificates of water availability – with no exceptions.
Following a special meeting January 19 taken up primarily by one hour in executive session with district attorney John Milne, commissioners Renee Coe and Sue Johnson approved a resolution prepared by Milne to extend the moratorium until July 2007 and to not consider an alternate resolution proposed by developer Stanton Northwest.

“The board is mindful that your present moratorium expires tomorrow,” Milne said prior to the executive session. “Depending on what the district does here it could potentially involve the district in litigation.”
Stanton had asked the district to consider issuing certificates of water availability for “future ERUs (equivalent residential units)” based on the potential for more water connections being available if capital improvements are made to the water system. “We really believe the district needs to move forward to clean some of the demand on your system from speculative or proposed projects,” he told commissioners at the January 11 regular district meeting at which he presented his alternate resolution.

Under the proposal the district would by resolution adopt a system of issuing availability notices on a limited number of future ERUs based on the number of connections the district expects to be able to serve once a capital improvement plan now in development is implemented. These availability notices would only translate to a current water connection if certain conditions were met, such as the approval of the district’s water comprehensive plan and capital improvement plan by state health authorities, and the installation and operation of the facilities specified in those plans. Applicants would also agree to indemnify the district for any delays or failure to put improvements in place that could mean the connections did not become available.

According to Stanton representative Randy Forsyth, this system would allow developers who don’t need the water now, but need the certificates of availability to proceed with permitting their projects, to stop waiting in line for the limited number of ERUs currently allowed by the state which the district plans to allocate later this year, leaving that limited resource to those ready to build. “Consider taking some action and make positive steps as you move forward,” Forsyth said.
Commissioners agreed not to vote on a moratorium extension until they could run the Stanton proposal past the district lawyer, but Coe said the January 19 telephone conference made clear they were in no position to change the rules. “We’re in a moratorium and we don’t have the authority to issue availability certificates to anyone under any circumstances,” she said. “The county was quite clear when they receive an availability notification they see it as meaning we are ready to provide water. Other counties may be different but we’re in Whatcom County.” In addition, one of the goals of the state review of the comprehensive plan is to determine how many more connections new infrastructure would make possible, and that number will not be known until the review is complete.

Coe said rather than complicating the current moratorium the district needed to focus on getting out from under it. “I’m not going to do anything that might put this district and community at risk so I’d rather say no,” she said.

In addition, Coe said, district resources needed to be focused on holding onto the additional connections the state has already approved, which was contingent on getting the updated comprehensive plan approved by the end of January. “We’re worried about this and we’re asking our engineers to go back and ask them for an extension so we can hold onto those connections,” she said.

Neither allocating those resources or developing capacity to create new ones would be possible until engineers completed the overdue comprehensive and capital facilities plans. “If we don’t have a comprehensive plan we can’t really do anything. We all want to move forward but we have to do it in a methodical fashion and we need that plan done.”

Forsyth said they were disappointed at the commissioner’s decision but that it would not derail their project to create a hundred-lot subdivision west of Lily Point. However, he did say that it could lessen his company’s motivation to participate financially in building more storage capacity for the district. “The longer this drags on the less we need to be involved with the solution,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll be participating to some extent.” He also added with the failure of the recent proposal his company would feel compelled to ask for their water connections through the upcoming allocation process. “If it’s the only avenue left to us we will participate in what we determine will be the most advantageous way possible for this project.”