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Concerned Citizens meet on water
Guests, left to right: Garland French, Ocean Shores councilman; Al Carter, County commissioner; and Kevin Varness, County engineer. (Edson Engel, president of the citizens group, at the microphone.)
Is City-County water debate (finally) over? To paraphrase Monty Python, it’s not dead yet . . .
Ocean Shores landing half of a $6 million water treatment plant as a no-payback loan, and the other half as a 1 percent interest loan, would seem to end any question of the City purchasing water from the County, which is building new wells at Hogan’s Corner.
Yet at Sunday’s meeting of the Concerned Citizens of Ocean Shores, City Councilman Garland Frenchinsisted that, even with the $3 million grant, the County water would be a cheaper option, in the long run. At the same meeting, Kevin Varness, a County engineer, said the Hogan’s Corner water would taste better than the filtered Ocean Shores water.
County Commissioner Al Carter said ground will be broken soon on the Hogan’s Corner project, and that the winning construction bid came in at $300,000 less than expected. The Quinault Resort and Casino, which currently buys water from Ocean Shores, has signed a contract with the County for Hogan’s Corner water.
Several of the two dozen who attended the meeting expressed frustration over the lack of an “apples to apples” cost comparison, between the City building its own treatment plant, or purchasing water from the County.
He also stated that he did review the results and noted that the system only is 70 percent effective in removing the elements we find offensive in our water. Meeting state standards for water means that you can drink it safely. It does not mean that you enjoy what you are drinking. There is a significant difference. That is why people buy water softeners, treatment equipment, and Brita water filters.
It is nice that we have the money. However, how we spend it should make sense both in the short term and long term interest of the city. We should know the cost of water produced at each source after treatment and just before distribution. That way we can assess the true cost. Also, we need to know the future cost of the treatment system over it’s effective life. If those costs escalate because of the need to replace elements, filter materials, and staffing, we need to know this up front. Too many things have come forward as “unknown” surprises. However, we were aware of the issues before we moved forward on those other programs. We still do not know the cost to replumb the city so ALL citizens can have quality water from the treatment plant all the way to evey tap all year round.
Mr. Varness also stated that he had neither tasted or analyzed the water coming from the MIEC testing. Other cities who have installed this system for comparable listing are more than pleased with the outcome.
Instead of bickering over who said what when, we need to move forward. We need to celebrate the fact that we currently have 9 million dollars for water infrastructure on the North Coast!
Water rights were issued to both the county and the city based on the same state standards.
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