County officials believe tacking a $7 fee on water bills in unincorporated areas around Lake Whatcom can help protect the lake’s water quality.

Whatcom County Council members last week approved an extensive Lake Whatcom Stormwater Management Plan, which proposes about $3.4 million in capital improvement projects through 2013 to mitigate the impact of current and future growth in the area.

It also tries to provide guidance for county planners and community members in how to make future growth decisions as they relate to storm water in the unincorporated areas of the watershed.

But some in the watershed, especially residents in the Lake Whatcom Water & Sewer District, are concerned that they may be charged twice for a storm-water fee to protect the lake.

District officials and the city of Bellingham are discussing a potential merger of the two entities. So far it has been envisioned as the city taking over the utility — basically controlling all of the infrastructure — but leaving a district in place to represent customers outside city boundaries. City water users already pay a similar storm-water fee.

County Councilman Carl Weimer said that concern has been raised in several recent meetings he’s attended. A new policy group, which has two County Council members, two City Council members and one district commissioner on it, are talking about the fee, he said.

Weimer also said that a recent report from the state Department of Ecology warning about the dire need to protect water quality in the watershed and limit development also is being examined to see how it may affect the storm-water plan.

Phosphorus in the water is decreasing the oxygen levels in the lake. It's been determined largely to come from the effects of development disturbing the land in the watershed and from runoff from that developed land.

"Everybody suspects we may need to up the ante to some degree, but we don't know that yet," he said.

Jon Hutchings, county assistant public works director, said so far it appears that the state's report fits in nicely with the county’' new storm-water plan.

"(The storm-water plan) certainly gets us several steps toward the necessary reductions in phosphorus and bacteria," Hutchings said in an e-mail. "Regardless of whether DOE requires a 74 percent reduction, a 50 percent reduction, or a 90 percent reduction in phosphorus loading from developed land, the early steps are the same."

Hutchings said that the storm-water plan, however, is a document intended to “evolve as necessary to clean up the lake.”

The storm-water plan will now be used to develop Whatcom County’s 2009-2010 biennial budget, Weimer said.

While the storm-water fee was proposed by staff, it’s not guaranteed, and there are other options, Weimer said.

“The funding source certainly isn’t set in stone,” he said.