FREELAND — The Freeland water district is hoping to buy a neighboring water district and if it’s successful, it will make the Freeland Water and Sewer District the largest on the South End.
Water district commissioners approved offering $1.2 million for the privately held Harbor Hills system during their regular business meeting last week. Harbor Hills serves the Holmes Harbor community.
Rocky Knickerbocker, chairman of the Freeland water district, said the district’s attorney will write up the offer and present it to the owner of Harbor Hills.
“We hope to close the deal by
July 1,” Knickerbocker said.
Combining the two systems increases the availability of water rights approved by the state Department of Ecology. The Freeland Water District has water rights for 550 customers now, and the state is expected to approve an additional 100 hook-ups in the near future for Freeland. Harbor Hills is approved for 1,100 customers.
The two systems will operate separately until the Freeland district annexes Harbor Hills and eventually connects the two systems.
The Harbor Hills system is privately owned by Terry Otey and its rates are regulated by the Washington Utilities Commission.
Freeland gets its water from two wells near town; one is 200 feet deep and the other is 300 feet deep. Harbor Hills has a total of four wells ranging in depth from 273 feet to 340 feet.
According to Doug Kelly, Island County hydrologist, local water systems are served mostly by aquifers.
“There are several aquifers present in any given area of the county ranging in elevation between
400 feet above sea level to 400 feet below sea level,” he said.
“The vast majority of wells in Island County, including South Whidbey, get their water from an aquifer that typically occurs between sea level and 100 feet below sea level,” Kelly said.
For the most part, South Whidbey has “good and plentiful water,” he said.
“There are some isolated areas where sea-water intrusion may become a problem,” he said.
The county knows of more than 5,000 wells on Whidbey Island.
“There are probably somewhere around another thousand or so that we do not know about because they were drilled prior to reporting requirements,” Kelly said. Roughly 1,200 of these wells are associated with public water systems; the remainder serve individual homes or irrigation systems.
