The Long Path from Raindrop to Faucetby Paul Pickett The story begins with a faucet. You turn on your faucet at home to get a drink, wash up, or prepare a meal. It's a simple task you probably don't think much about. But here in Thurston County getting clean water for household use is actually not so easy. Turning on the faucet and having fresh, pure water come out actually depends on a long series of events. The chain of events that leads to your faucet begins with rainfall. All of the drinking water in Thurston County comes originally from local precipitation. Rainfall and snowmelt feeds the groundwater aquifers beneath our county, and about 99 percent of our domestic water is drawn from that source. So the first step in getting water to your faucet is finding a clean groundwater source. Groundwater Quality This introduces the first complication— the quality of that groundwater. Contamination from human activities has made groundwater unfit to drink in many areas. According to the Thurston Regional Planning Commission, there are 15 areas in the county where nitrate has exceeded warning levels, and many of these areas exceed state standards. Nitrate can cause "blue baby" syndrome, and it's source is usually fertilizer or manure that is washed through the soil into groundwater. About 50 "hot spots" of chemical contamination have been identified in Thurston County, including the infamous problems of EDB contamination near Pattison Lake and PCE in the Palermo well field in Tumwater. Chemical contamination can result from pesticide use or toxic waste disposal. Groundwater experts acknowledge there may be other hot spots that haven't been found because of the lack of comprehensive monitoring. An increasing problem is bacterial contamination of groundwater. Some areas of the county have very gravelly soils where bacteria are not easily filtered by soil particles. In these areas, septic systems, pet waste, and livestock manure may be contaminating groundwater supplies. An example recently in the news is the Violet Meadows subdivision, where dozens of homes were issued "boil water" orders because testing found bacterial contamination in the wells serving them. There are other problems with groundwater quality in the county that are not health problems but make water difficult to use. Large areas of the county have high iron levels in groundwater that can cause staining and require expensive treatment. Around the edge of the Sound, groundwater pumping sometimes causes saltwater intrusion that renders groundwater too salty to drink. Some water sources are very corrosive, which can release copper and lead into drinking water from water pipes. And of course, in the basalt bedrock of the Black Hills, Maytown Highlands, and other areas there may be no groundwater at all. So you see, just finding pure groundwater may be difficult, and human activities often make good groundwater unusable. And once groundwater is contaminated, it is difficult or impossible to clean up. But even if you find a clean groundwater source, there are other complications. Wells The next step is to install a well and pump to bring the water to the surface. Thurston County estimates that there are over 20,000 individual wells in the county. Many wells serve multiple households. A well serving two to fourteen households is termed a "Group B" system and is regulated by the County. Wells serving fourteen or more households are "Group A" systems, which include the large municipal systems, and are regulated directly by the State Department of Health. There are currently estimated to be about 330 Class A and 350 Class B systems in the County. If a well serves more than six households, then the Department of Ecology must first issue a permit for the water withdrawal. This threshold has created a situation called "six-packing," where a developer puts in multiple wells that each serve six homes rather than getting a water permit. The problem at Violet Meadows has been complicated by the fact that the developer six-packed the subdivision, installing ten separate wells rather than obtaining a permit. Solving contamination problems for multiple wells will be far more expensive than for a single well. Thousands of wells mean thousands of users of groundwater, and no one knows for sure how large our groundwater supplies are. Summer flows in most of the county's streams and rivers are supported by groundwater, and no one knows how many of these unpermitted wells are reducing flows in our streams. Therefore, well development without metering is leaving a huge piece missing in our ability to protect endangered salmon and freshwater aquatic life in general. Thousands of wells also mean thousands of ways that pollutants can reach the groundwater. Poor wellhead protection can allow surface pollution to move quickly to aquifers. The huge number of wells adds to the problem of ensuring that groundwater is protected, because it is very difficult to provide adequate education and inspection. Completing the System So, back to your water system: You have groundwater, a well, and a pump. Presumably, you have a water permit or your well is exempt. You still need piping and storage. For a single homeowner this will probably mean a pressure tank, but larger systems may require a large storage tank or reservoir. You may also require treatment: perhaps iron removal and chlorine disinfection. Treatment systems can be expensive to install and complicated to operate. More complications: all multiple-user systems must test their water and submit the results to the State or County. This can be both complex and expensive. Also, finding a problem can trigger additional testing and expensive system upgrades. Operating a water system might be fairly simple for a single homeowner, but larger systems are more difficult. In many cases, a developer has installed a system and walked away, leaving a nonprofit board or homeowners association to manage the system, or perhaps leaving no administrative structure at all. Since 1995, all new developments are required to contract with a certified operator to ensure the system is operated properly. However, many homeowners with older systems may know nothing about their water supply until it breaks down. Water System Operators Even with a certified operator, the quality of management may be poor. County and State officials say that there are many very good operators in the County, but some operators are not very responsive to problems. A DOH engineer tells of one operator who fought with regulators over water system problems, so that residents had a boil-water order for over a year. Part of the challenge for water operators is that many are commercial for-profit operators who must have rate increases approved by the Utilities and Trade Commission. Any upgrades are "investments" in their systems that eat into their profit margin. Rate increases from the UTC can only be approved after the investments have been made. This can be a disincentive for commercial water operators to be responsive to system problems. System upgrades can be extremely expensive and financing may be difficult to find. DOH wants water system problems fixed promptly, and although DOH provides low-interest loans for water system repair, financing may take much longer. The Nisqually Pines subdivision recently had a problem with bacteria contamination due to aging storage tanks that were allowing bird droppings to reach the water supply. Residents were able to find a "quick fix" to clean up their water, but they now need over two million dollars in loans to solve all the problems in their system. That's a lot of money, even when spread among several thousand residents! Unfortunately, but perhaps understandably, many homeowners don't want to pay the cost up front to maintain their system or set aside funds for refurbishing their system down the road. Their system decays and they may not know that the quality of their drinking water is deteriorating. Then a crisis comes, and they are faced with severe "sticker shock" at the cost of fixing their system. The answer to this probably comes from good homeowner education and ensuring the responsibility of water system operators. The Violet Meadows situation illustrates many of these problems. The developer used six-packing to save money and time, and now has walked away with no responsibility for the increased costs due to the multiple wells. The subdivision was developed as low-income housing. The water system has a commercial operator who must "invest" in the system to fix the bacteria problem. If the operator passes the costs on to the residents, it is uncertain that they can afford it. Looking Forward Are there ways we can improve the way we manage drinking water in Thurston County? The County and State can increase the monitoring of groundwater quality and use. The County can use the Growth Management Act to encourage large developments to locate near existing metered water systems. The State can repeal the six-pack well exemption. And we need to push the State and County to do these things. So next time you turn on your water, stop for a minute and contemplate the miracle of clean water in your home. To get that water into your home takes hard work and hard-earned cash, responsible operation and maintenance, and stewardship of our natural resources. Paul Pickett is a staff writer for the Green Pages.
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