NORDLAND — Jefferson County Public Utility District leaders were heartened Wednesday by one high-ranking Department of Ecology official who voiced support for the PUD’s effort to extend service to water-needy Marrowstone Island.
In correspondence Wednesday with PUD Commissioner Wayne King of Gardiner, Joe Stohr, special assistant to state Ecology Director Jay Manning, reiterated Ecology’s support of the project to install about 5 miles of pipeline to connect PUD’s water system to the island.
“We have been on the public record before in terms of getting water out to Marrowstone,” said Stohr, who was in Port Hadlock on Tuesday for a meeting of the Quilcene-Snow Watershed Resource Inventory Area 17 planning unit.
Hearing examiner
That is good news to two of the three PUD commissioners facing a final legal hurdle: A Jefferson hearing examiner shoreline permit hearing Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the county commissioners chambers in the Jefferson County Courthouse, 1820 Jefferson St.
The hearing will address construction within 200 feet of the shore, along state Highway 116 and near Mystery Bay State Park.
King said Stohr’s remark shows “there’s nothing at Ecology to hold up this project.”
King added: “It just makes us feel a little more comfortable that we’re on track here. I am sure we’re going to put pipes in the ground this year.”
Backhoes will be used to dig small trenches, which will be immediately filled back in, said King.