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POSTED: Monday, Nov. 17, 2008

County considers reduced development, well restrictions on Lummi Island

LUMMI ISLAND - Whatcom County may reduce development potential on the island and add stringent new requirements for drilling and testing wells.

A proposed new plan for the island would change zoning to allow construction of only one house per five acres, down from the current zoning that allows one house per three acres.

It would also put strict requirements on wells, including:

-- New wells must be located at least 200 feet from existing wells.

--New wells would require a full 24-hour test for arsenic levels.

-- Large existing wells would need twice-a-year tests of chloride levels. High chloride levels indicate seawater is seeping into the ground-water supply.

The housing-density change is a response to a state growth board's decision that some rural areas countywide should be rezoned to one house per five acres or less because more density is considered sprawl. Roland Middleton, special projects manager at Whatcom County Public Works, said he didn't know how many housing units that ruling would prevent from being built, but it likely was not many because so much subdividing already has occurred there.

The wells changes come after Aspect Consulting released a report Dec. 31, 2006 on ways to ensure development doesn't harm the aquifer below the island. Changes mirror those in use on Whidbey Island and in San Juan County, Middleton said.

The Planning Commission has recommended the County Council approve the plan.

"My personal feelings are that aquifer is such a big mystery and that the precautionary principle definitely takes hold, otherwise those people are going to run out of water," said Ken Mann, chairman of the county's Planning Commission.

The new plan would replace one approved in 1979, which is the oldest subarea plan in the county, Middleton said. The new plan has taken years to develop. After years of study, a draft was released in 2004. Since then, it has been delayed while more study was done. It was also a victim of high employee turnover at Planning and Development Services.

Middleton is no longer a planning department employee, but the county executive asked him to work on it to get it done, he said.

County Executive Pete Kremen formed a committee on the island to guide creation of the new plan. Some members thought it went too far and others not far enough in protecting lands, committee member Al Marshall said.

"I know you've got to produce something that you can administer, but this island is so variable in terms of availability of water that it'll probably be insufficient in some places and too much in others," Marshall said. "So, where are you? What are you going to do?"

A county budget that's threatening ferry runs and the economy in general is making some residents seek more self-sufficiency on the island, he said. But the plan doesn't provide agricultural zoning, despite prime agricultural soils that would allow residents to grow their own food.