Maintaining a Healthy Community

Sam Taylor, a certified municipal clerk, has served the city of Ferndale since 2011. He spent nearly a decade before that as a journalist, most recently as the government and politics reporter for The Bellingham Herald. He lives in Ferndale with his wife and two little boys.

Water is the lifeblood of a community. The city of Ferndale is proud to provide safe, clean drinking water here locally, and we strive every day to continue to do that.

A few years back, the city’s elected leaders, with a large recommendation from staff, decided to no longer buy Nooksack River water from Whatcom County Public Utility District No. 1 and instead take advantage of groundwater rights the city possessed. That meant converting back to a wells system for our drinking water source.

Up until the 1970s, Ferndale pumped water from an aquifer underneath the city. But that meant we still had rights to access that water supply.

A recent article in Whatcom Watch (September 2013, page 1) unfortunately confused this community’s wise decision to switch drinking water sources with some type of secret cabal to give water to a privately-proposed bulk cargo terminal at Cherry Point, known as the Gateway Pacific Terminal.

The author of the article should be given credit for citing public sources of information related to the allegations of why Ferndale switched water sources. It appears, however, that the author left out important aspects of why the city switched.

There were several major factors to Ferndale’s switch from the PUD to our own rights.

First, Ferndale had been dealing with double-digit rate increases from the PUD for some time and it appeared that those high increases were going to continue for years to come. While city leaders worked to have the budget basically “eat” those cost increases for a few years rather than putting it on the backs of customers, eventually that would not be sustainable. The author of the recent article argued that a 10.2 percent increase was some sort of pittance simply because it wasn’t a 25 percent increase. In our view, a double-digit rate increase is a double-digit rate increase, and our leaders made the decision they felt would best protect our community’s utility customers.

Second, the PUD had informed Ferndale that a treatment basin would need to be constructed as part of an infrastructure upgrade plan the district was undertaking. The cost of that basin was estimated at about $5 million. For perspective, the cost of the entire groundwater well project was about the same price. That meant the city was faced with the decision to add one treatment basin or take full control over our own water system. Our City Council, again, chose to make the decision that was best for Ferndale.

Third, the state Department of Health regulated Ferndale’s drinking water system once we purchased the water from the PUD, but it didn’t regulate PUD’s system. The state was not necessarily that supportive of Ferndale purchasing water from the PUD and encouraged the city to take full control over its own system. This would allow the state to have full oversight of Ferndale’s drinking water system, and it makes sense that Department of Health would advocate for this move. Ferndale understood that recommendation as well.

Fourth, in order to avoid any potential chance that Ferndale lost its groundwater rights, officials made the decision that it was better to use them than lose them from the state.

Finally, it is no secret that Whatcom County has some very large battles coming related to the right of farmers, tribes and municipalities taking water out of the Nooksack River. Those battles are likely to be played out in court and could become very, very expensive, involving numerous lawyers.

Ferndale decided as a community that it would be better to take advantage of groundwater rights it already possessed rather than potentially involving itself in costly litigation. This city took full control over its water future, and it was the right one for our community.

This city’s utility customers no longer face large rate increases due to the capital improvement programs of a third party. Ferndale doesn’t have to worry about costly capital infrastructure upgrades because of another entity. The community has full control over its own water destiny.

In the end, that is what is most important. It’s not a conspiracy. It’s a smart long-term plan for the good of Ferndale.

Water is the lifeblood of a community, and we have enhanced our health.