Meeting Materials
Agenda, Video Recording, Zoom Chat
Meeting Recap
Thanks to everyone who attended the Group B Meetup on April 22nd, and special thanks to our speakers: Jeff Tasoff and Donna Keeler from Facet, Aneta Hupfauer from Island County and Brad Burnham from Department of Health. We had 20 people at the Coupeville Library and another 20 on Zoom, who together heard a presentation on the Coordinated Water System Plan and a briefing on legislative changes to the SMA requirements for Group B systems. Throughout there were discussions in response to questions and issues raised, many of which are captured in the recap that follows.
What is the maximum size of a Group B system? Group B systems are 14 connections or fewer and supporting a population of 24 adults or less.
Coordinated Water System Plan (CWSP): Jeff Tasoff and Donna Keeler presented on the work they are doing under contract to the county: to review the Coordinated Water System Plan and make recommendations on how to update it for sustainable water resource management. The CWSP was drafted in 1990 and is out of date. Changes are needed to reflect new regulations and other changes within Island County during the past 35 years. The group discussed many of the challenges facing Group B systems: proliferation of private wells and small water systems, vendor support, water quality, adequate rates and reserves, growth and climate related issues. Please send your feedback and ideas by email to Donna Keeler.
- It was asked if there was interest in forming a Distributed Water District with a number of Group B’s. This would create a merger of administrative and technical services with all water systems sharing equally, something that has been tried in other counties. There was mild interest in this idea but that trying to physically interconnect systems would be too expensive.
- One Group B member reported that a resident on their system is drilling a private well with plans to withdraw from the water system. Generally parcels within a Group B service area should be connecting to the Group B system rather than installing their own well. You can check your service area using the Hydrogeology Web App (display Group A and B Service areas—select the Water Systems checkbox to see the service areas on the map). It is difficult to enforce compliance with the service area requirements due to process restrictions, something that the CWSP review may consider changing.
- Another member reported that they had looked into consolidating with a neighboring Group A but the cost of required changes to the Group A system was high and came just after upgrades to their Group B system making the project infeasible. The county has relaxed the fireflow requirements for consolidation and the CWSP review may consider other changes.
- It was reported at the meeting that there is a new water service company in Island County which is looking for Group B clients between Oak Harbor and Coupeville: Oak Harbor Water Management. They are not an SMA but do have a certified operator on staff.
House Bill 1947 – 2025-26: New legislation signed on April 11, 2025 and effective July 27, 2025, linked here. Reducing satellite management agency requirements for simple group B public water systems. Group B systems installed in since 1995 are required to use an SMA if available. This new bill will no longer require SMA support for Group B water systems that service 9 connections or fewer and do not use water treatment, do not have a reservoir or atmospheric water tank, and do not have fireflow requirements. This is very recent news and DOH and the county will each provide information at a later date on how this new legislation will be put into practice.
Water System Rates & Reserves: We talked about this at the October Meetup but it was brought up again that it is challenging for a small Group B system to set rates and construct reserves often due to pushback from the residents. In particular, long term residents are used to very low rates (<$100/year). We did a survey in October, but had a very small sample size, just 16 respondents. That survey’s results showed an average annual rate of $400 and reported that ¾ of the systems surveyed maintained a reserve fund. You can find the report and survey results here. It was suggested that we rerun the survey this year with the aim of getting a statistically meaningful number of responses. This may give ammunition to help convince residents of the need to raise rates.
Q&A: questions and issues were raised throughout the meeting. Some of the highlights:
- How to handle ADUs and AirBNBs—Any new ADUs must be given a separate service connection (and meter) and must fit within the number of approved connections for the water system. AirBNBs don’t need to be considered any differently than a typical residence or ADU but using a reasonable population count for the type of structure.
- Well pump replacement—several members attending are either needing to replace their well pump or planning to set aside funds in a reserve. They pointed out that some local providers such as Bob’s Pumps and B&W Pump may not be available any longer but Dahlman and Aquatech are available, and that there may be some others not on our WIWSA services page.
- How to perform a chlorine shock treatment—it was recommended to use clean bleach for any shock treatments to the well. A link to a DOH advisory was given at the meeting. After the meeting, a link was provided to some chlorine tablets which are specifically made for water system applications. These are considered food grade and NSF 60 listed, so suitable for use in a water system. Do not use pool tablets in a drinking water system.
- How to handle pressure differences within the water system—one member said that they had trouble with pressure differences within their system due to the fact that some residences were at a higher elevation than others. Several suggestion were offered: raise the pressure to meet the needs of the higher elevation residences and put in pressure reducing valves at the low elevation residences.
Pump House Tour—several members offered up the idea of having a tour of several pump houses to promote sharing of ideas. We’ll look into it!
Links from the Meeting, mostly from the Chat:
House Bill 1947 – Changes to SMA requirements for some Group B systems
Hydrogeology Web App – for displaying Group A and B Service areas. Select the Water Systems checkbox to see the service areas on the map.
DOH Group B Design Guidelines – design information for new or expanding Group B water systems.
DOH Group B Water Systems webpage – documents defining Group B regulations and a complete list of resources.
DOH Satellite Management Agencies (SMA) webpage
Water Rates – DOH flyer on water rates
RCAP Guide to Setting Water Rates
DOH flyer Emergency Disinfection of Small Water Systems
Chlorine Tablets – an example of chlorine tablets which are specifically made for water system applications. These are considered food grade and NSF 60 listed, so suitable for use in a water system. Do not use pool tablets in a drinking water system.