Where I live we are surrounded by water and a fair amount of rain. However, the state of Washington is planning to regulate its use in our area of Jefferson County to benefit the salmon habitat.
The resulting limits on water usage could seriously affect our small farms and some believe it is a plan to limit growth in the state. There are local farm bureaus that are lobbying against the limits, and many public forums take place with the Department of Ecology and the Department of Natural Resources. There have been many realtors working to defeat the regulations.
Possible new rules would limit the number of new wells, denying some land owners development of their own land, metering existing wells and limiting the amount of water to a maximum of 500 gallons per day, or an average of 350 gallons per day.
There has been talk of tripleing setbacks from rivers, streams and wetlands to the point where a five acre parcel would be unbuildable.
There is no way to please both sides in this issue. Stay tuned!
More about the Puget Sound
- More than 5,700 acres of aquatic land (land under water) exceed contamination levels that are considered safe.
- Nearly 20 percent - or about 30,000 acres - of commercial shellfish beds have closed to harvest since 1980.
- Approximately 70 percent of Puget Sound near-shore estuary habitat (the land near the mouths of rivers) has been lost to residential, commercial and industrial development. These areas are vital nurseries for salmon and other marine life.
The Causes
Population growth and development have taken a toll on Puget Sound. Nearly four million people live in 115 cities and towns around the Sound, and more keep coming - 1.5 million more in the next twenty years. That's like adding a city the size of Portland. On the surface, Puget Sound still looks terrific; yet underneath there are alarming signals that the ecosystem is in trouble. We must take action now to prevent irreversible decline.
Among the many Puget Sound species listed as threatened or endangered are: orcas, otters, steelhead, salmon, bull trout, albatross, pelicans and sea turtles.
Today there are far fewer shorebirds - nearly a 50 percent decline in just the past two decades.
Thousands of acres of commercial shellfish beds are closed because the clams, mussels and oysters are unsafe for us to eat.
The state Department of Health keeps a list of Puget Sound beaches that are not safe for swimming because they are contaminated with bacteria.
And in Hood Canal, there are dead zones - areas without enough oxygen in the water to support life -- with signs that new dead zones are emerging in other parts of the Sound.
One-third of the households around Puget Sound rely on septic systems, many of them old or leaking, which send raw sewage into the Sound.
Every day, treated wastewater flushes into Puget Sound, along with toxic chemicals.
Two million acres of forest at the base of our mountains has been cut, paved and built up in less than one generation - that's an area as large as King and Pierce counties combined.
Our cities and suburbs are built so that less rainwater is absorbed where it falls, and more rainwater picks up chemicals and oil as it washes over roofs and roads into storm drains that empty into the Sound. This "stormwater runoff" is the number one cause of pollution in Puget Sound.
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