Water system concerns dismissed

Reposted From Nisqually Valley News

Water system concerns dismissed
Concerns expressed by Tahoma Terra developers about JZ Knight’s water system were reviewed and dismissed by the state Department of Health.
Posted Sep 26, 2008.

By Megan Hansen
Nisqually Valley News

Concerns expressed by Tahoma Terra developers about JZ Knight’s water system were reviewed and dismissed by the state Department of Health.

“Our staff had a meeting with them (Tahoma Terra’s Doug Bloom and Steve Chamberlain),” said Carolyn Cox, public information coordinator for the DOH. “We were able to bridge some misunderstandings.”

In a letter dated Wednesday, Sept. 10, Bloom and Chamberlain alleged non-compliance by Knight’s Ramtha School of Enlightenment and asked the Department of Health to look into the school’s water system.

Bloom and Chamberlain claimed that Knight was overusing her water rights, violating a 100-foot setback of Thompson Creek and exceeding capacity.

Knight is fighting the approval of five developments in Yelm, including Tahoma Terra. Knight is arguing that the City of Yelm does not have enough water rights to accommodate the growth.

Initially, the meeting with Bloom and Chamberlain brought light to what they thought was a discrepancy between the Department of Health and state Department of Ecology forms, Cox said.

The discrepancy had to do with the water demand assumption in the two documents.

After further review by Ecology officials, Cox said, they discovered there was, in fact, no discrepancy.

“The Department of Ecology’s Report of Examination regarding (Knight’s) water rights shows that each attendee would use an average of 35 gallons per day and each staff member would use 15,” Cox said.

“That report was issued on June 20, 2007.”

“We spoke with the Department of Ecology about this,” Cox said. “They explained that the table showing daily water usage in the Report of Examination is actually a projection of water usage if the school expands its operations.”

“Ecology’s approval of that projected use is good through 2013, and they see no problem with (Knight’s) water rights.”

After their meeting with the Department of Health, Bloom and Chamberlain said they were not satisfied with the answers they received and submitted another letter.

“After the meeting with DOH staff on Sept. 12 and discussing the ambiguous nature of the information disseminated on the Water Facilities Inventory, we concede that 10,000 temporary and transient users may not exceed the contentious 1998 approval of 2,000 people per day for this water system,” Bloom and Chamberlain wrote.

They asked that the Department of Health reduce Knight’s water system permitted usage by more than two-thirds.

“It’s important to understand that this is not a residential water system,” Cox said. “Usage rates for day events where most attendees use portable toilets is vastly different from what you would see if they had overnight accommodations.”

“The Office of Drinking Water has looked into the developers’ concerns,” she said.

“We are satisfied that the water system is operating within its water rights and we see no need to adjust usage/event attendance limits in their Water System Approval document.”

Cox said her staff has thoroughly looked into Bloom and Chamberlain’s concerns and are satisfied with the findings.

“From our perspective as the water system regulator, (Knight’s) water system is in good standing,” Cox said.