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PART 1: SAN JUAN COUNTY WATERSHED MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN
SECTION 1: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction:
The draft San Juan County Watershed Management Action Plan was prepared by the San Juan County Watershed Management Committee, San Juan County Health and Community Services, and San Juan County Conservation District. The development of this plan was funded by a Centennial Clean Water Fund grant administered by the Department of Ecology.
The San Juan County Watershed Management Action Plan differs from other watershed plans because it addresses watershed issues county-wide, and then uses priority watersheds to focus on specific examples of non-point problems and recommended solutions. Some issues, such as on-site septic design, maintenance, and repair, are county-wide concerns. Other issues, such as agricultural practices, are concentrated in a few watersheds.
Watersheds as a Natural Resource:
Although a significant part of the land in San Juan County is privately owned the watersheds of San Juan County provide a public benefit for both residents and visitors. This plan includes recommendations for a program to protect water quality, for human consumption and wildlife habitat, and as a result also addresses protection of the county's wealth of natural resources, forests and grasslands, wetlands and shoreline habitats.
Drinking Water and Habitat
The Committee ranked domestic water supplies as the most critical resource in the county. With limited quantities of fresh water available, protection of water quality is essential for safe, economical drinking water supplies. Habitat was ranked equally with drinking water as a critical benefit needing life-giving, clean water supplies. Fish, shellfish, and wildlife all depend on clear, fresh water for the healthy wetlands, streams, and estuaries that provide food, cover, rearing, spawning, and nesting sites.
Recreation, Agriculture, Commercial/Industrial Activities, and Aquaculture
Clean water is essential to outdoor recreation throughout San Juan County. Residents and visitors play, fish, swim, and boat in the waters and along shorelines of the county. The Committee ranked recreation as the third priority for clean water, benefiting the economy with recreational and educational opportunities. Agriculture, commercial and industrial activities, and aquaculture were also ranked as essential uses needing clean supplies of fresh water.
Water Quality Problems:
The marine waters of San Juan County have been ranked as Class AA (WAC, 1992), and are considered typically high quality, compared to many areas in Puget Sound and the Northwest Straits. When the Committee began reviewing available information the persistent question was: What problems are we supposed to be solving if the water quality is so good?
Two answers resulted from this question. The first is that prevention of water quality problems costs a fraction of fixing problems once they occur. The county is at a critical point, where water quality degradation is not extensive (although during the course of this project many trouble spots were identified). At this time it is possible to establish management programs that will prevent costly and potentially irreversible damage. The second answer is that no comprehensive water quality evaluation has been done in the county, so potential and existing problems have not been documented. Water quality monitoring done as part of this planning project, as well as a careful look at monitoring done by state agencies, has shown that the county does have some problem areas.
On-Site Septic Systems
The majority of county residents treat their waste water with on-site septic systems. With very poor native soils for treatment of waste water, sophisticated treatment systems requiring regular maintenance are needed. The Committee designated on-site septic failures as the number one potential source of pollution in San Juan County.
Conversion to Residential and Commercial Development
As one of the fastest growing counties in the state, with the smallest land area, conversion of forestlands, grasslands, and wetlands to residential and commercial development is designated as the second highest potential impact to water quality in the county. By removing the natural systems that protect water quality, and introducing impervious surfaces and other alterations in the terrain, development activities introduce sources of pollution and convey these pollutants into wetlands, streams, and estuaries as stormwater runoff.
Stormwater runoff
Runoff is surface water that runs directly to streams and marine waters because of impervious surfaces, such as pavement, or because the soil is saturated. Much of the county is bedrock or clay soils that inhibit infiltration and promote surface runoff. Stormwater runoff, as a source of nonpoint pollution, is defined as runoff from impervious surfaces created by residential, commercial, and other urban development. Unchecked stormwater can convey pollutants, such as heavy metals, oils, toxic organics, pathogens, nutrients, and sediment directly to water bodies if it is not intercepted by natural filtration systems such as trees, grasses, and wetlands. Stormwater runoff was ranked in the top three as a potential source of pollution, due, in part, to significant water quality violations from stormwater drains in Eastsound and Friday Harbor.
Agricultural Practices
Agricultural lands cover a major part of a few of the county's watersheds. These fertile lands are associated with extensive stream and wetland areas that tend to be saturated in the winter. As a result, careful management of pasture, stream corridors, wetlands, and animal waste is critical to water quality. Because of water quality violations in the False Bay and West Sound watersheds, and a growing number of small-parcel livestock operations, the Committee identified agriculture as a significant potential source of pollution for some watersheds.
Forestry Practices
Forest lands cover seventy percent of San Juan County. Most of these forested properties are privately owned. Forest practice regulations address a mainland scale of logging activity and miss altogether many of the critical issues for this county that occur on a much smaller scale. Intermittent and ephemeral streams and tiny wetland areas are essential to water quality and quantity in the county, but are generally unregulated. Fragile soils and micro-climates create the need for site specific management practices. Clearing for residential development is not regulated. For these reasons the Committee ranked forestry practices as an important potential source of pollution.
Marinas and Boating Activities
Recreational boating is a major activity in the county, but little is know about the impact on marine water quality from boaters and kayakers. The Committee recommends surveys and monitoring to evaluate these impacts, and education to promote good practices.
Solid Waste and Hazardous Waste
Because of the logistics of solid waste management in the county, including costs to haul waste to the mainland, the Committee recognized this important potential source of pollution. The county has active recycling and hazardous waste programs, which the Committee endorses, wholeheartedly.
Recommended Strategies To Protect Water Quality:
The Committee developed nearly 100 strategies to protect water quality in the county. Fifty-five are county-wide, and 41 are recommended for individual priority watersheds. Many of these strategies are interrelated and involve an ongoing program that includes monitoring, surveys, education, and technical assistance as preventive measures. Nineteen of the strategies involve regulation, most of which address a new component or approach to existing regulations.
Cumulative Impacts
One of the greatest concerns expressed by Committee members is the cumulative impact of development in the watershed. Current regulations and permit process address individual projects on a case by case basis. This process limits the reviewer's perspective to the immediate vicinity of a project, without looking at larger picture of runoff and infiltration of water, land cover, downstream receiving waters, wildlife habitat, and the many essential functions of natural systems in the watershed. It is the Committee's hope that county staff, landowners, contractors, developers, and policy makers begin to see the watershed as a whole when making important development decisions. To this end, several recommendations involve developing better resource information and making this information available to staff and the public.
Ongoing Monitoring
The Committee struggled with the lack of concrete information about water quality in the county. The assumption that marine water quality in the San Juan Islands is pristine has limited the initiative to conduct monitoring and surveys. Monitoring was begun as part of the planning project, and a long term monitoring plan will be developed in the spring of 2000. The Committee made long-term, ongoing water quality monitoring its #1 strategy. Watching water quality trends over the long term, with consistent methods, will give the county the best management tool available to prevent degradation before it happens.
Plan Adoption:
Adoption of this plan will include a request for concurrence from participating agencies and a series of public workshops and hearings to solicit public comment. When adopted, an implementation committee and lead agency will follow through with the recommended implementation strategy.
Implementation of the Recommended Strategies:
Some of the recommendations in this plan have been funded since the beginning of the planning process and are being implemented. Many of the recommendations involve better coordination of existing programs to benefit the watershed and water quality, such as cooperative education programs with state and county agencies, and developing a water quality perspective for conservation priorities for the county. Overall, full implementation of a new, ongoing water quality program is estimated to involve the addition of one full-time and one part-time county employee. Proposed funding for these projects and programs includes grants and, if adopted by ordinance in the future, a water quality district.
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