Mobile park with failed septic, tainted water seeks to annex

When sewage started leaking from a pipe beneath the home of Stephanie Lucadano, a resident of Valley High Mobile Park on North Oak Harbor Road, it reeked for over a week.

A separate pipe burst across the path from Rosie Sheperd, another resident, and her lawn was flooded.

This isn’t the first time it’s happened. Valley High’s failed septic system has been a concern for Island County government for about six years; the ground cannot absorb any more waste. Commissioner Jill Johnson met with Oak Harbor Mayor Ronnie Wright recently to discuss the possibility of allowing the property owner, Happy Magnat, to hook up to city sewage and water at Magnat’s own cost.

Sheperd has been promised clean drinking water at Valley High for the 26 years she’s lived there, she said. Test results have returned with trace amounts of lead and other contaminants, but if she doesn’t run it regularly, the water is dark brown. Sheperd blames the water for her destroyed appliances; she’s had to replace her laundry machine and dishwasher within five years. No one in Valley High drinks the water.

“It’s disgusting,” Sheperd said. “We don’t drink it. We just wash with it. We get bottled water.”

On Lucadano’s deck sits a water bottle full of murky, sludgy water.

While the main focus of recent meetings between the county and the city are about sewage, an equal, if not greater, concern to Valley High residents is clean drinking water.

Valley High is an old mobile home park with 47 units. Infrastructure there is poor, said David Kuhl, the city’s development services director, at a recent city workshop. Firetrucks have difficulty entering the narrow roads, and there are no fire hydrants.

Last year, Magnat approached the city about annexing the property, but she did not turn in requested documents or attend the meeting when it was discussed, so the council voted to deny the request, Kuhl said.

According to Magnat, the city required her to bear the brunt of a $2 million infrastructure improvement before the property could be annexed.

The county could act immediately by requiring the property owner to hire a company to remove the sewage regularly, Kuhl suggested. It can also require a holding tank for sewage.

These are short-term solutions, Johnson said, and she is looking at the long-term.

“We’re just trying to figure out, is there a willingness upon city leadership to help stabilize these mobile homes? Yes or no,” she said. “If the answer is ‘yes, we’re willing,’ then we’ll keep exploring. If the answer is ‘no, we’re not willing,’ then the county needs to figure out what course of action it’s gonna take.”

Adding the units to the city would require large-scale infrastructure improvements, such as new pipes and fire hydrants, to comply with city code, said Steve Schuller, Oak Harbor’s public works director. In addition, annexation would cost about $100,000 yearly.

“These septic tank systems on a statewide basis are becoming an issue,” he said. “Many of them are very, very old, and cities have borne the brunt as you know of appropriately in many ways cleaning up our environment and doing what is right for the Puget Sound.”

Annexation would inevitably add cost to the residents, Wright said.

“Let’s just say that we were to go forward with this and spend the millions of dollars it’s going to take to do that, this is no longer affordable housing,” he said. “This utility bill becomes 20, almost 35% of their rent.”

Valley High residents almost unanimously support annexation, Lucadano said. Magnat has raised rent four times in less than four years. The heightened costs will be worth not having to buy separate water and having a working sewer system, the residents said.

Because rent has increased so much in recent years, the added cost may be a dealbreaker for Sheperd, she said.

Annexation is a must, Magnat said, as she cannot redo the septic system, and the pipes will continue to break.

“I’ve got 50 families over there, and I cannot make them homeless,” she said. “We want the service over there.”

Despite Valley High residents not living within city limits, they are Oak Harbor people, said Councilmember Jim Woessner. They dine, shop and play within the city.

Mayor Pro Tem Tara Hizon estimated that Magnat collects about $27,000 monthly from her tenants. She questioned why this cost does not fall to the landlord and then the county, as all landlords in theory could neglect their systems, collect money, wait until the situation becomes a public health crisis and expect a local municipality to bail them out.

“I guess I’m just confused as to how this is our problem,” she said.

The issue lies in the type of system, Johnson said, not who to blame. A septic system treats wastewater on site, whereas a sewer system directs wastewater to a centralized treatment plant.

“The ground can’t absorb more waste,” she said. “The system has failed, so it’s not about the individual, the landlord not doing the maintenance. There literally is no more ground that can absorb that waste.”

At one point, Wright and Johnson’s one-on-one meeting became “a little hostile,” Wright said.

Johnson felt that representatives from Oak Harbor had already made up their mind and were not willing to explore options.

“I don’t know how to talk to them when they come in loaded for bear,” she said. “They’re not looking for solutions, and then they’re always like, ‘it’s hostile.’ Why? Because I’m pushing you to go do your job? Why isn’t it hostile that you don’t want to stabilize 60 mobile homes?”

City boundaries and possible annexations are a regular part of the comprehensive planning process, due for an update next year, Schuller said.

The council will likely continue this discussion once more before it is brought to September’s joint meeting between the city and the county, Wright said.

According to Johnson, the Valley High property will not be on the agenda of September’s meeting.

“We’re not going to talk about an individual property in that particular meeting,” she said. “That’s not the purpose of those meetings.”

Part of the perceived hostility may be because the city ultimately may not have as many options as are currently presented, Johnson said.

“I’ve had council members call me and say that the county threatened to force the city to do it anyway,” she said. “Nobody was making threats. We were explaining to the city that we have the power to do that. That’s not hostile, and that’s not a threat. Facts aren’t threats. They’re facts.”