Postpone "The Time to Dry Taps" in Doe Bay, Olga and Rosario



Rosario has water rights from Cascade Creek for 1204 acre ft per year, or just about 400 million gallons per year.
The majority of this is for hydroelectric use and is then dumped into the ocean.
This is a substantial amount of water to dump into the ocean during a drought.

The very simple Mountain Lake Conservation plan simply states: "Shut down the Rosario hydroelectric generator during a drought."

The current domestic water rights affecting by Mountain Lake in order of the least senior (first affected and most vulnerable) at the top are:

water right class
 Priority Date
 Current Water Right Owner
 Annual water right in Acre ft
IV, V and non adjudicated
 1945, 1946, 1977
 Doe Bay Water Users
 12+82+87= 181.0
III
 1920
 Wa St. Parks 8.4
II
 1908
 Olga Water Users
 94.0
I
 1884
 Oly Rose LLC (Rosario)
 34 (Total is the domestic use portion of the total of 1204 acre ft.)





The total of existing domestic water rights is (183+8.4+94+34) = 317.4 acre ft /yr.
By shutting down the hydro generator during a drought (such as 2005),  we would conserve an additional 886.6 acre ft of precious water in Mountain Lake.
This provides well over a 2 year reserve during a prolonged drought.
(reserve time = extra storage/consumption = 886.6/ 317.4)

Even if the entire 306  acre ft (100 million gallons) described in the June 2004 draft of the San Juan County Water Resource Management Plan were were drawn from Mountain Lake, you would then have a consumption rate of about 600 acre ft/yr and storage of about 600 acre ft. This would postpone the time to dry taps by about 1 year.

However, if an island wide district is formed and all of the remaining 1166 acre ft/yr was converted to domestic use, then the reserves described in the conservation plan would not be available. The first step towards supplying the island with water from Mountain Lake would be to convert the remaining 1166 acre ft from hydroelectric to domestic use.

On June 7, 2005 Rosario Utilities has applied for a water right modification to convert 1166 acre ft from hydroelectric to domestic use.
For up to date information check the Wa State Dept of Ecology Water Rights Tracking System:
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/info/wrats/Wria_sanjuan.pdf

There are other sources of water on the island that should be considered before converting the hydro rights to domestic use.



Olga Water Users Inc.
Please call (360) 376 3815 if you have questions of suggestions on this topic.
Or email:

Useful Links:
Diagram of water flow from Mountain Lake to Cascade Creek and Cascade Lake
Mountain Lake Conservation plan
East Orcas Watershed Planning