A Possible Solution


Rosario has expressed that it may be willing to sell its water rights, and they are trying to determine their fair market value. With the oversight and careful guidance of the San Juan County Board of Commissioners, this critical transaction, between a willing seller and willing buyers, could resolve numerous current issues. The following plan would cause a paradigm shift that would dramatically reduce the otherwise predictable legal (and conservation/consumption) conflicts in the future by creating a common interest in conservation, remove the class distinction, and provide equal rights and protection under the law for all water right holders.

  1. DBWUA, OWU, EWUA/Rosario Utilities2 the parks, the Land Bank and other interested parties would be allowed to buy portions of the first class water right on an equal basis, based on accepted plans, while considering available sources.

  2. All buyers should have equal access to public funding, if needed, or their own sources.

  3. Rosario would be compensated for the sale based on fair market value.

  4. Buyers would pay for new rights, and improvements to rights (increasing class) or additional volumes.

  5. Some water rights or portions of them could be abandoned, or in a trust for long term habitat protection.

  6. With cooperation from all parties, and a recommendation from the county, Ecology would probably also resolve the storage right issue at the same time, also with equal class.

The total of all consumptive rights from Mountain Lake should be below what is clearly sustainable based on actual measurements, which appears to be of the order of 500 acre ft./yr. on the 4 years of data available. A technical review is invited.

Here is a hypothetical result for the sake of discussion resulting in a list of water right holders with equal status in the Mountain Lake watershed and equal protection under the law :

  1. Doe Bay Water Users Assoc.: 260 acre ft./yr. (an increase of 69 over present)

  2. Olga Water Users Inc. 110 acre ft./yr. (an increase of 16 over present)

  3. Rosario/EWUA: 112 acre ft./yr. (an increase of 78 over present, and about one third of total described in the 2004 Multi Purpose Storage Assessment.)

  4. Moran State park 8

  5. Total 500 acre ft./yr, and sustainable!

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Eastsound/Rosario could also convert additional sustainable rights in Cascade Lake, carefully maximize the use of the Eastsound aquifer based on measured results and guidelines similar to Island County, and enhance storage capacity in Purdue Lake. With agreement from all parties involved Ecology would probably follow a county recommendation to issue storage rights at the same time, avoiding further complications in the future (no water storage rights have ever been issued in Mountain Lake.) <>

Eastsound could also seek water right modificaitons in Cascade Lake with a similar sharing of costs with the land bank or other parties interested in the rights. <>
The result of having common interests in conservation, and having equal burdens in a drought is powerful. <>

The source of funds and many legal details have not been addressed here. The goal of having a legal solution involving willing sellers and willing buyers, while forestalling future legal battles (including storage rights), compel the board of commissioners to give this concept careful consideration and help it develop into a reality.

<>The proposed water right modifications could create the highly inequitable situation where a developer in the distant future would be able build a subdivision far outside the Mountain Lake watershed and legally draw volumes of water that would force DBWUA and OWU to shut down its municipal supply.

Olga Water Users Inc (OWU) isthe oldest water system on the island.

2Perhaps Rosario Utilities would be merged with EWUA in the future, but at the present, their name is no on the rights for the water they sell.

Just in case you missed it, here is the problem

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