Forum looks at water needs of people and fish

Regional water utilities have understood the need to coordinate more closely with their neighbors in the planning and delivery of water services, but it is now clear that more cooperation is necessary to respond to complex issues of increasing demand and endangered fish.

By RUSS STEPP
R.W. Beck

Over the past several years, the Central Puget Sound region has experienced rapid growth in population and development. Simultaneously, the listing of fish species under the Endangered Species Act has heightened the need to integrate the water needs of fish and people.

Regional water utilities have understood the need to coordinate more closely with their neighbors in the planning and delivery of water services to their customers, but it is now clear that a greater level of cooperation is necessary to respond to these complex issues.

The Central Puget Sound Water Suppliers’ Forum, formed in July of 1998, comprises major water suppliers, water associations and county governments in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. The forum is developing a Regional Water Supply Outlook for the three-county area. For the first time, water utilities in the Central Puget Sound area are jointly assessing long-term municipal and industrial water demands, existing supplies and potential shortfalls as a first step in this regional process.

The forum’s coordination of water system planning is motivated by the need to ensure an adequate supply of water both for fish and people. It is working with stakeholders and planning groups to link water resource issues, ESA concerns and Growth Management Act requirements in the next steps of the process. The Outlook is a key element of the “Water For People – Water For Fish Proposed Framework” developed jointly by King County and the city of Seattle. Phase one of the Outlook has been recently completed; in the second phase, currently underway, the forum will be involved in the following three tasks:

• Identifying areas where municipal water supply shortfalls may occur over the next 20 years,
  
  
• Identifying potential municipal water supply solutions, and
  
  
• Identifying resource and management options for areas with potential shortfalls that are mindful of ESA-related recovery.

Four stakeholder work groups were formed in early June to address issues in the second phase. These workgroups are focusing on: conservation; reuse; conventional solutions/institutional constraints; and ESA/fish issues.

The first three work groups will identify an array of possible solutions or water supply management options. The fourth work group will summarize existing information on water needs for fish, being developed by watershed planning groups, tribes, fisheries agencies and others. Forum members believe that this multi-phased regional effort to share and manage water for fish and people is an appropriate response to address the competing demands for water.

The Outlook's first phase -- data collection -- was completed in February. It involved surveying 158 utilities in the three-county area regarding the population they serve, water usage, supply options, infrastructure, potential new supply and conservation methods. The forum’s Water Supply Planning Committee compiled the information received from utilities and used these data in conjunction with Puget Sound Regional Council’s 1999 demographic forecasts to develop a water-demand forecast through 2020 for the three-county region. The first phase also included preparing a summary and inventory of major existing supply sources.

The Outlook process was designed to allow the analysis of population and demand forecasts by utility service area, watershed and county or region. This flexibility in organizing projections will help to meet water supply commitments for fish under ESA and for people under the Growth Management Act.

In the second phase, the forum is continuing its efforts with extensive analysis of the region's available water supply options, as well as identifying fish-friendly water supply alternatives. That phase of the Outlook report is scheduled for completion by the end of this year.

After the second phase, the plan is to work in conjunction with all stakeholder groups and integrate the forum’s Regional Water Supply Outlook (assessment of municipal and GMA water supply needs) with ESA/fisheries strategies being developed by tribes, watershed planning groups, the Tri-County ESA effort, fishery agencies and other stakeholder groups. Phase two will help identify where water supply-demand shortfalls may occur by the year 2020, as well as an array of potential local, sub-regional and regional solutions that could alleviate shortfalls. This phase is also likely to include an assessment of regional resources and corresponding infrastructure, as well as future conservation and re-use options.

Forum members expect the process to be challenging, but they are committed to facilitating communication and information to address regional water supply issues. The consulting team of R.W. Beck, Economic and Engineering Services and Dally Environmental are helping to prepare the Regional Water Supply Outlook. Forum members are also providing considerable time, effort and in-kind services to develop the Outlook.