Island County will spend more than $200,000 of clean water utility money this summer to shuttle storm water that officials know is contaminated with high levels of fecal coliform bacteria into Useless Bay.
A public works project recently OK’d by the Island County commissioners will see the installation of a new drainpipe near Dave Mackie Park in Maxwelton and alteration of another that’s currently blocked by sand. Officials hope the work will help address a recurring flood and drainage problem that’s damaging homes and private property within the historic waterfront community.
According to data acquired through a public records request, however, water-quality test results at another nearby outfall reveal those same flood waters have for years contained levels of fecal coliform bacteria that far exceed some state standards, one sample by as much as 3,900 times.
Though county regulators are aware of the issue, they say treating the water is simply too expensive and that the public’s health is not at great risk. Also, while they don’t dispute the testing results, they maintain the samples don’t actually exceed state standards. The rules only apply to what’s defined as “surface” water, not the “storm” water at issue in Maxwelton, they say.
Officials believe that draining the area as quickly as possible is permissible and the best first step to addressing the ongoing problem.
Infrastructure trouble
Flooding in Maxwelton has been a headache in the neighborhood around Dave Mackie park for years. It’s largely the result of natural forces working against existing drainage infrastructure; continually shifting sands on the beach and a sloughing bluff to the east have blocked or slowed flow at both ends of drainage pipes.
The migrating sands are particularly problematic. Aerial images taken over recent years show significant movement, so much that one outfall at the park is now hopelessly blocked by mountains of sand. Its location is now marked by a large lagoon.
The park’s boat launch is also so buried that county workers have given up trying to keep it clear.
Bill Oakes, director of Island County Public Works, said the natural tidal forces at play continue to this day.
“That sand bar is still moving,” he said.
In 2014, the department spent about $200,000 to build a new outfall, one that stretched 450 feet onto the tide flats and away from the shifting sands. It was the county’s first expenditure of the clean water utility, a fund fueled by Whidbey tax dollars collected specifically for needed drainage and clean water projects.
The pipe was installed, but flooding has remained an issue. This wet season the county installed several pumps to combat rising water levels as the backyards of many homes were submerged. Residents have complained that the county’s effort was insufficient and lacked appropriate manpower.
County officials are hoping a third outfall will provide a more permanent solution to the ongoing flooding. Like the second one built two years ago, it will empty far out onto the tide flats. The project will also reroute the old pipe, the one currently blocked by sand in front of the park, to connect with the one planned for this summer.
Oakes said the total tab for the new outfalls and supplemental work — ditch repair, inlet modifications, etc. — will hit about $600,000.
A dirty solution
The effort to drain Maxwelton, however, won’t be a clean fix. Water quality test results from Island County Public Health show high levels of fecal coliform — bacteria that serves as an indictor of human or animal fecal contamination — at drainpipe inlets over the past three years. Sample results ranged across the board, from a low of just 1 colony-forming unit per 100 milliliters in April 2013 to a whopping 195,000 in July of last year. The latter appeared to be largely an anomaly, as the next highest finding was 36,000, taken in June 2015. Most results were in the hundreds to under 10,000.
But according to state regulators, many of whom were either totally or largely unaware of the results until provided the data by The Record, the findings far exceed what’s acceptable.
“All those numbers are way too high,” said Ralph Svrjcek, a water quality specialist with the state Department of Ecology whose monitoring area includes Island County.
The state’s recreational fresh water standard is 50 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters, according to Washington Administrative Code 173-201A-200.
The findings were all taken at the inlet of the outfall built in 2014, though the county’s water quality testers got similar results when sampling the inlet of the park outfall during the same test period. Though fecal coliform by itself isn’t necessarily harmful, it’s a red flag for the presence of other more dangerous pathogens, such as strains of E.coli or enterococcus.
Scott Berbells, a growing area section manager for the state Department of Health’s shellfish program, echoed concerns about the county’s sample results, saying they were enough for the agency to consider changing the status of nearby shellfish harvesting areas from “open” to “closed.”
He also didn’t rule out the possibility of the state mandating the formation of a shellfish protection district, such as the one in Holmes Harbor, if water quality doesn’t begin to improve.
“We are very concerned with the numbers coming out of there,” Berbells said.
Representatives from both state agencies recently met with county leaders and have loosely endorsed the new drainage project. It’s not the best solution, but it may help more accurately identify and ultimately solve the problem.
The source
According to Keith Higman, director of Island County Public Health, the offending water quality samples are almost certainly the result of area septic systems. Maxwelton is an old community and most homes have aging gravity systems with drainfields.
He and other county leaders strongly suspect that flood waters are causing one or more to malfunction. They’re designed to operate underground but not under water.
“Saturated ground and septic systems don’t get along well,” Higman said.
His department has known about the problem for years, largely because of Public Health’s voluntary water sampling program — testing is encouraged, but not required by the state. Also, county experts say samples taken in knee-deep water along the shoreline are all well within state standards. Debbie Sargeant, a beach program manager with the state Department of Ecology, agreed that those results show safe levels, particularly in the dry season.
“During the summer months, water quality looks good,” Sargeant said.
The exceptions are the drainage inlets, which are not accessible to the public, and the lagoon. All the above exceedances were taken at the inlets, but additional tests were also performed at the lagoon. According to Higman, children were observed playing in the “puddle” last year spurring testing.
“Well, when they sampled it, it exceeded beach water standards,” Higman said.
“It’s static water so it’s not surprising,” he added.
A sign warning people to stay out of the water was reportedly posted in July, 2015, but it no longer appears to be in place. A Record reporter visited the lagoon Thursday afternoon, which stretched the length of Dave Mackie Park and was filled with floating driftwood. He could find no sign, but there were several children playing in the brackish water.
Seattle resident and mom Lisa Gardner was not happy when told about the water quality problems at Maxwelton, especially at the lagoon. She said she came to the beach because she’d heard good things about the area, so didn’t think twice about letting her 3-year-old son, Myles, play in the isolated pool.
“I certainly wouldn’t have had my kid in it if I had known it was polluted,” she said.
According to The Record’s information request, the most recent test samples at the Dave Mackie outfall inlet, which leads to the lagoon, were taken Jan. 26. The results were between 220 and 260 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters. The month before they topped 1,000.
Too expensive
Island County project leaders believe installing the new drainpipe is the best way to fix the problem and are quick to point out that the test results don’t require the county to take any additional steps. In fact, they contend that the standards don’t actually apply to what’s happening in Maxwelton so they aren’t really “exceedances” at all.
Higman said the state only has rules for “surface” water, which is defined as “lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, inland waters, saltwaters, wetlands and all other surface waters and water courses.” In other words, only natural and sustained waters carry standards, not “storm” water which comes solely from rain.
“It doesn’t mean it’s not a concern, but there are no requirements,” Higman said.
One of the big differences between the two classifications is that surface waters usually have very defined and natural pathways, whereas storm water is subject to impervious surfaces, such as roads, that are rife with pollutants or contaminants.
If municipalities were forced to treat storm water, the costs could be astronomical, Oakes said.
“From a public works standpoint, cleaning up fecal coliform means building a treatment plant,” he said.
Doing so in Maxwelton would match the infrastructure investment of Oak Harbor, which is currently building a $100-million facility. Oakes said there could be other similar storm water headaches in small beachfront communities around Whidbey, and building treatment plants for them all is simply too expensive.
Higman agreed.
“I’m not sure what’s going on in Maxwelton isn’t what’s going on all over Western Washington,” he said.
The county’s plan to drain Maxwelton’s flood waters originally called for building outfalls that would stretch nearly 1,000 feet out from the shoreline. The end would have been submerged at all times, and not subject to blockage from shifting beach sands. It was also based on a widely used strategy commonly referred to as “dilution is the solution,” which takes advantage of strong currents and lots of clean water to whisk away contaminants.
That plan was abandoned, however, due to requirements by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. They manage deep waters, and after learning about the water quality problems, declined to give the county a permit unless the water was treated.
Again, it came down to expenses .
“The only way to remove fecal coliform is sophisticated treatment… and we’re talking about storm water,” Oakes said. “It was just not practical.”
Instead, the county cut the drainpipe in half — about 450 feet — which terminates above the low-water mark. The new pipe would be the same.
The project came before the Island County commissioners last month, and the board gave the green light. Commissioner Jill Johnson did specifically ask if water quality problems existed, but the two public works officials presenting the agenda item said there were none of concern.
Oakes said he couldn’t account for the response, only that if he’d been present he would have answered the question with a “yes.” But that doesn’t mean he believes the county’s planned fix is wrong, he said. The county wants to find and solve this problem, said Oakes, but it has to take this step first.
“We have to de-water the area before we can look for failing systems,” he said.
Technically yes, but…
According to Ralph Svrjcek, a water quality specialist with the state Department of Ecology, the county is correct that surface and storm waters are defined differently and that their associated rules are different. But it shouldn’t be used as a free pass.
“Technically, it’s true,” Svrjcek said. “But we don’t expect those kinds of numbers to be discharged on a regular basis.”
No matter how they are defined, the water still ends up in the same place — Puget Sound — and the rules that do exist are there to protect natural resources.
Without legislative authority to enforce non-existent standards, ones Svrjcek said he doesn’t necessarily believe are warranted, the Department of Ecology instead focuses on intent.
“Our measure is, ‘Are they trying to solve it,’ ” he said.
In this case, the agency is convinced the county is. Part of that is due to the county’s past work addressing the very same problem in Holmes Harbor. High levels of fecal coliform bacteria found there in 2006 led to shellfish harvesting closures, swimming bans and ultimately the formation of a shellfish protection district the following year.
The county worked hard to fix the problem, which gives ecology officials greater confidence that it will do so again in Maxwelton. It appears that dilution is the solution in this case, he said.
“We’re OK with the plan, but we need them to stay on it until it’s fixed,” Svrjcek said.
“It’s not acceptable on a long-term basis,” he said.
