Hood Canal is another victim of the law of unintended consequences. More than a decade ago, the 1,000 Friends of Washington and outriders like Citizens for Rural Preservation were riding roughshod through appeals and fabian tactics working in concert with Olympia bureaucrats imposing from on high their vision through the high sounding “Growth Management Act” (GMA).

During part of that time, I was a County Commissioner sitting on the Hood Canal Coordinating Council. Concerns over non-point pollution, particularly from septic systems all along built up shorelines was well known. It was obvious that a regional sewage plant serving the south end was needed not just for SK residential areas, but to make the industrial zoning around the airport viable. That would have put the sewer line close to the Mason County line. That proximity could have made extension to Belfair and beyond to the heavily developed shores of Hood Canal feasible. The outfall would have been in the deep waters of the Sound with Mason County ratepayers helping to cover the cost.

Sorry but one-size-fits-all GMA forbids sewers in “rural” areas. The Board that followed me kept their promise to roll over, myopically shrinking growth areas and industrial zoning, instead ‘studying” until after the economy turned south.

GMA has given us more commuters, retirees, out-of-sight home prices, and denied us means to economically create infrastructure necessary to address the problem. Meanwhile degradation continues while the new governor hedges on supporting additional studies. Is she afraid the conclusion might be to change the flawed law?

Matt Ryan
Bremerton