Posted: February 1, 2025
My Edmonds News
Updated Feb. 3 with a comment from the City of Edmonds
The Edmonds Environmental Council (EEC) said Friday night that is has reached an agreement with the City of Edmonds to suspend the EEC’s appeal of city regulations related to the city’s critical aquifer recharge area (CARA) regulation approved by the Edmonds City Council in May.
The appeal is suspended pending results of a scientific study on stormwater infiltration and its risks of PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and other toxins polluting the drinking water aquifer, the EEC said in a news release. Under the settlement agreement, the city will use the study results to make recommendations to the city council on the Deer Creek aquifer critical area regulations.
You can see the full text of the settlement agreement here.
The settlement comes after the Edmonds Environmental Council announced in July 2024 that it was filing an appeal, called a Petition for Review, with the Washington State Growth Management Hearings Board “because of risk of contaminated drinking water in Woodway and south Edmonds.”
The Edmonds Environmental Council’s Board of Directors include former Edmonds City Councilmember Diane Buckshnis and current Town of Woodway Councilmember John Brock, along with Joe Scordino, Clinton Wright, Dianna Maish and Ken Reidy.
According to Friday’s news release regarding the settlement, the environmental council appealed the city’s regulation “based on state law that requires cities to protect the functions and values of critical areas — which includes drinking water aquifers.”
The council’s May 2024 vote on the CARA ordinance came after several residents asked the city council to instead approve an earlier proposal — from 2023 — that they said would be a more cautious approach to the issue until more is known about how to best treat PFAS. They are also called “forever chemicals” because of how long they take to break down in the environment and people’s bodies. According to this Washington State Standard report, PFAS chemicals have been used since the 1940s to manufacture industrial and commercial products, including goods like nonstick cookware, carpets, and raincoats. They’ve also been a common ingredient in firefighting foam used at sites like military bases, airports and refineries.
CARAs are treated as critical areas under the state’s Growth Management Act. When city code was last updated in 2016, it stated that no areas meeting criteria for CARAs existed in the city. However, in 2022, Edmonds was alerted to two CARAs in the city’s jurisdiction when the Olympic View Water and Sewer District (OVWSD) appealed the city’s SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) Determination of Nonsignificance for a stormwater code update. OVWSD withdrew its appeal of the stormater code when presented with additional information provided by city staff, and staff committed to updating city code to reflect the presence of possible CARAs within city boundaries. The two drinking water wells are Deer Creek Springs near the Town of Woodway and at 228th Street Southwest — both supplement the drinking water that Olympic View purchases from the City of Seattle.
In October 2024, the city and the Edmonds Environmental Council began mediated settlement discussions followed by three months of negotiations by respective attorneys, resulting in a final draft settlement agreement that was approved by the city council in executive session Jan. 14. The city council made changes that were subsequently approved by the environmental council and the final settlement agreement was signed by all parties to the appeal, the EEC said in its news release.
The EEC said it entered into settlement discussions “because it wanted to take an amicable approach with the city to save on legal costs for both sides in dealing with the issue of PFAS in stormwater and its impacts to human health.”
The news release also states:
The EEC conceded many of its settlement objectives during the negotiations, such as the EEC request that the city implement an interim ordinance banning shallow UIC [underground injection control] wells. The EEC did this in order to reach agreement on the need for an actual scientific study on PFAS in stormwater and the risks of “forever chemicals” contaminating the drinking water in the Deer Creek Aquifer and jeopardizing human health. The settlement agreement calls for a study to be completed by about June 30, 2025 on the risks and avoidance of PFAS contamination in the Deer Creek Aquifer to inform the city’s decision on necessary protections of the Deer Creek Aquifer and human health. The study will include an assessment of options including an identification of known PFAS sources that may enter the groundwater and subsequently the drinking water aquifer and an evaluation of 1) a prohibition on both deep and shallow infiltration; 2) a prohibition on any stormwater infiltration unless the stormwater is first filtered in a manner designed to remove PFAS; and (3) a prohibition on using known PFAS sources in or near a drinking water aquifer.
City staff “are to then use the study results to develop action options for Edmonds City Council consideration within 45 days of receipt of the study,” the news release said. “The EEC will track this process and provide its input to the city council also. If the city council action, within 90 days of the staff report, does not resolve the legal issues raised by the EEC, the GMHB appeal process will resume.”
Commenting on the settlement Monday, City of Edmonds Community and Economic Development Director Todd Tatum said that the “city values the health of its residents and the cleanliness of its drinking water and have not seen any evidence suggesting that Olympic View’s drinking water is contaminated with PFAS, despite the aquifer being replenished by stormwater infiltration over the years.
“That being said, we remain concerned about the impacts of PFAS to human health and the environment,” Tatum continued. “The sources of, and regulatory response to, PFAS is an emerging area of study at the local, state, and federal levels. We are committed to remain engaged with the best available science on the subject and to promote regulation at all levels which reduce these chemicals in our environment.”