Interpretive Center now open

Where: Water Reuse Demonstration Site, 202 N. Blake Ave.

When: 8-10 a.m. Wednesdays and noon-2 p.m. Thursdays.

More info: Contact Ann Soule at 582-2436 or visit www.sequimwa.gov.

Peering into the future and beyond the engrained concept of “Sunny Sequim,” city officials are developing Sequim’s first stormwater master plan. Among the jurisdictions on both the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas, Sequim is alone in its lack of a plan, program and utility fee for stormwater management.

When City Manager Steve Burkett first began his work in Sequim five years ago, he admits he was “pretty amazed and surprised” to learn Sequim didn’t have a stormwater water plan or utility.

The plan

To begin to understand the necessary elements for a useful stormwater master plan, Sequim city councilors unanimously approved a grant agreement with the Department of Ecology during a meeting Oct. 27. The nearly $250,000 DOE grant will cover 75 percent of the project costs, which is combined with the city’s $83,000 match to cover the $333,285 project.

From now until March 2016, through collaboration and findings from Herrera Environmental Consultants, Inc., a Seattle-based consultant group, city officials will seek to develop a stormwater management plan, analyze and identify existing stormwater problems, explore alternative solutions, document a plan for implementation, provide staff tools to address stormwater pollutant control obligations as required by local, state and federal law, prepare funding options and develop a stormwater management program.

Councilor Ted Miller is “extremely skeptical” whether stormwater management should be a top priority for Sequim and more so whether a stormwater utility fee is a good use of taxpayer money, he said.

However, in neighboring cities, residents have long paid stormwater utility fees, including Port Angeles residents at $12 per month and Port Townsend residents that pay on average $7.25 per month.

“I’ve worked in seven or eight cities and this is the only one without a stormwater utility,” Burkett said. “A utility fee is one of the options, but it may or may not be a good fit for here.”

Miller said he is hopeful to find information from the project to support his view on no utility fee.

“A couple days of standing water per year is a small price to pay,” Miller said. “I am not saying it (stormwater management) is not important, but I think just about anything else is more of a priority.”

Unique characteristics

Unlike its surrounding area, Sequim, in the midst of a rain shadow, has kept stormwater management from becoming a priority because it experiences less rain.

Additionally, Sequim was built on the historic floodplain of the Dungeness River and thus beneath the city is primarily porous, alluvial soils that efficiently drain surface water.

“One of the things that we’re doing is looking at jurisdictions with (stormwater) plans in eastern Washington because we are more similar to them in some ways,” Burkett said.

Most cities have a network of pipes that collect stormwater and discharge it into nearby streams or the ocean, however, in Sequim because of the porous soils, most of its stormwater seeps into the ground or is caught in catch-basins and then seeps into the ground, Burkett said.

Given the area’s unique characteristics, Sequim doesn’t tend to have serious flooding concerns. Yet, the development of a stormwater master plan will allow city officials and planners the opportunity to both better understand and document issues relating to stormwater management, or lack there of, Burkett said.

Why manage stormwater now?

City of Sequim Water Resource Specialist Ann Soule said there is a variety of other reasons to manage stormwater in addition to flood prevention and protection as floods do occasionally occur here and can have large impacts as documented in a January 1997 city council meeting, noting between $730,000 and $740,000 in public flood damages.

Among reasons for more deliberate stormwater management include prevention of property damage, environmental impacts and proactive preparation for meeting additional regulations.

“Eventually, we think we may be subject to state and federal regulations for stormwater,” Burkett said.

Although Sequim’s population lingers around 6,700, it is projected to continue to increase and with urban expansion sprawling away from the well-draining geologic makeup of central Sequim into less porous soils, stormwater management becomes increasingly important, according to Water Quality Combined Financial Assistance Agreement between DOE and the City of Sequim.

State and federal regulations

As Sequim’s population likely increases above the threshold for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program administered by DOE, city officials will be required to have a permit for any stormwater discharge. Once city officials are required to adhere to the state’s requirements to obtain permits for any type of water discharge, it will be costly because it is expensive to monitor water quality and provide the needed oversight, Soule said.

Bell Creek has long fallen short of federal water quality standards and is thus found on the state’s 303(d) list of a polluted waters. The creek fails to meet a variety of water quality standards including fecal bacteria, dissolved oxygen, pH and macro-invertebrates, and likely will require cleanup – though there has been no enforcement yet.

Bell Creek also is considered “critical habitat” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for both bull trout and Puget Sound steelhead, which are both protected species by the Endangered Species Act.

Bell Creek is an example where the “city hasn’t heard from any state of federal agency yet so nothing is being done differently,” Soule said. However, if any agency were to decide to require action, Soule anticipates better stormwater management would be required.

“Even ‘Sunny Sequim’ has to pay attention to environmental and property protection responsibilities so that we aren’t caught unprepared when it rains or snows, or if federal regulations are imposed,” Soule said. “Proactive management will improve resiliency of all the city’s infrastructure and agrees with the Comprehensive Plan and Council-adopted organizational values and vision.”

Reach Alana Linderoth at alinderoth@sequimgazette.com.