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Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Well stance discussed by commissioners
DAVENPORT—A reportedly reversed stance by the state Dept. of Ecology created a discussion on whether Lincoln County should have an ordinance requiring developers outside municipality limits to connect to a public water system instead of drilling private wells at the Lincoln County Commissioners regular meeting Tuesday, June 20.
The conversation was started by Public Health Director Ed Dzedzy, who told the commissioners he learned from the Dept. of Ecology (DOE) in a meeting two weeks ago that the DOE’s attorney general reasoned the DOE couldn’t prevent developers from drilling wells, as it has in the past via letters.
“That came years after prodding the Dept. of Ecology to enforce their own rules,” Commissioner Rob Coffman lamented.
Locally, the issue has arisen as developments have gone up in Deer Meadows and Sunny Meadows near Grand Coulee.
“People started drilling wells within water service areas,” Dzedzy said. “The Dept. of Ecology wrote letters saying ‘you’re in a water a resource area (and) have to decommission because it’s not part of the water rights.’”
“The DOE’s attorney generals have informed Ecology they don’t have the authority to say, ‘you can’t drill this well here.’”
However, Dzedzy said the attorney general’s opinion hasn’t been put in writing. But if it is enforced, he questioned whether the county would need an ordinance it doesn’t presently have.
“What teeth do you have after the attorney general says you can’t do that?” Coffman asked. “Is that going to trump what the attorney general says?”
“It’s not a field that’s entirely preempted by the state,” Prosecuting Attorney Adam Walser responded.
Dzedzy said if a public water system doesn’t have customers, it can’t survive.
“Now everybody starts drilling wells, then it’s not sustainable anymore,” he said. “When (developers) come in after the fact and drill wells, they’re drilling wells that affect their neighbors.”
Coffman said if the opinion holds, the county may have no choice but to create an ordinance for those outside municipality limits currently unaffected by any city or town ordinances.
“Usually, municipalities have their own rules,” Lincoln County Planner Courtney Thompson said.
Coffman said the county should ask for a written opinion from the Dept. of Ecology’s attorney general as the next step.
“There’s probably a fair argument to be made that regardless of the attorney general’s opinion, we should have an ordinance because it creates certainty for possible developers,” Walser said.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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