While not specifically about the Peninsula, this bill was a bad idea that could have affected us. This is what the battles here over the Water Resource Inventory Areas (WRIA) are about. Endangered salmon having enough water to spawn, or homeowners being able to drill ever more wells, and withdraw that water from the area.
Legislation that would have allowed people to build homes in areas closed to construction last year has been pulled by its author. Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen pulled her bill, Senate Bill 6312, which would have allowed landowners in the Fisher, Carpenter and East Nookachamps stream basins to build homes. Last summer, the Department of Ecology said there was too much water being withdrawn from the Fisher-Carpenter creek basins and that salmon could be harmed as a result. Ecology closed the basins to residential well drilling, effectively curtailing all residential development there.
Bill that would allow construction in low-flow stream basins is dead
http://www.goskagit.com/news/article_f38d41b8-8044-11e1-bd19-001a4bcf887a.html
If you are interested in reading more on the science behind the politics of in-stream flow…here is a starting point.
Filed under: Around the Sound, Government | Tagged: water use, WRIA |
