This week’s top story: Water

WATER!!!

No fast relief for Ocean Shores residents thirsting for good water

Part I of a series on Ocean Shores water/utilities

By Tom Scanlon

Ocean Shores residents have been complaining about the taste of the tap water for years.

Arnold Samuels, a resident here for 27 years, says he has a simple solution for local water drinkers: 

“Put a little Scotch in it.”

Seriously, he advised to not hold your breath for high-quality H2O. “Some years it’s worse than others, but it’ll probably never be good.”

Jim Jordan, an Ocean Shores resident for even longer than Samuels, recalls that when he first got here, the water “was damn good.”

He says one of the wells went bad over the years, and since then the water has never been the same. Meanwhile, the City keeps talking about how to fix it, and spending money on studies and up-grades.

 “They’ve spent so much money on studies,” Jordan opines, “if they took all the study money they could give everybody in Ocean Shores bottled water for life.”

His plea: “Spend the money once and get good water!”

A few months ago, there was hope that a solution to the Shores’ water woes was right around the corner. 

Last summer, consultants at a water study session said Ocean Shores could have better water, paying 10-25 percent LESS for it, in January 2009.

Well? (If you’ll excuse the pun.)

Rates are right where they were then, with no plans for reductions in sight. City Council still has not voted on whether to invest in a new system, purchase money from the County, or some combination of the two.

Mayor Dean Bunkers explained the system upgrade is “a three year process.” He confirmed that if council would have acted immediately on the consultant’s study in the summer, things would already be slightly better for local consumers. “If we would have taken all their recommendations, we’d be lowering our rates slightly” now, he said.

He said rates should still be lowered, once council approves a plan. But the decreased rates may be a year away.

“Now, we wouldn’t make the rate changes until January of 2010.”

The reason, he says, is the poor state of financing, which has changed drastically in the last few months.

“Things have changed since last summer, the financing for bonds . . .  With all those (financing) assumptions, a lot of those have changed. The cost of bonds are probably a lot higher now.”

Ocean Shores has been in discussions with the County for several years, regarding a proposed well at Hogan’s Corner.

In August of 2007, there was discussion that a new well at Hogan’s Corner could start pumping water to Ocean Shores in late 2008.

Didn’t happen. Not yet, at least. But Al Carter, one of the county commissioners, says that if Ocean Shores gets on board in the near future, the city can be getting some of the Hogan’s Corner well “by the fall.”

But, since conferring with Carter and other county representatives in the fall about plans to purchase water, Ocean Shores representatives seem leery of signing a deal. The revelation that there was once a city dump near the proposed well raised eyebrows, to say the least.

At the direction of City Council, Bunkers recently sent the County a letter, asking for a four-month test of the new well, and for answers to a half-dozen questions.

(See letter excerpts, right.)

Carter acknowledged he and others have received the letter. 

“We are answering the current list of questions and will forward the answers when complete.

He did bristle at one of the letter’s key points: more testing.

“A four-month pump test would cost $100-150,000 to do,” he said. “I’m not going to waste $150,000 to do that . . .the money would be better spent building the water system.
We have completed 72 hour tests and we are using a phased approach so more thorough testing will be done.

“This is a Class A grade, number one water system, that was approved by the Department of Ecology and the Department of Health. It’s first-rate, great water.The county followed the state recommendations and rules for this water system.”

The state, he said, has already tested and approved the Hogan’s Corner well site.

Carter reiterated his statement from the fall, that the County hopes Ocean Shores will sign on for the new water, but if not . . .

“There is the chance that Ocean Shores may opt to not buy water from the county.

“Even so, we’re moving ahead. We’re going to develop our wells anyway, whether or not Ocean
Shores buys (water) now or later.”  

In the first phase of the new well, the County would be able to supply approximately 500,000 gallons of water per day.
Ultimately, Carter said, “We could supply all of Ocean Shores, plus Illahee and Oyehut, plus Hogan’s Corner.”

The County has a track record on the North Beach: it supplies water to Pacific Beach. There, the well was originally run by a private businessman. After there was water quality trouble years ago, the County took it over, and long since solved the problems.

“Our drinking water is excellent,” says Marjorie Johnson, who lives in Pacific Beach and works in Ocean Shores. After the trouble with the private owner, she says, “the County took it over, redid the system and we pay about what Ocean Shores pays per month, the result is we have really wonderful water. Best I have had since I was a kid in Oregon. 

 “I bottle our water, and take it to work.”

Next week: Part II, how water/utilities have been bankrolling the City of Ocean Shores