Lack of water limits growth -- but that's fine by the locals

By DON CARTER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A University of Washington survey of summer visitors to the Ebey's Landing Historical Reserve found that a half-million people spend about $8 million a year for food, lodging and merchandise in the Coupeville area.

Health care seems to be the area's main growth industry. Whidbey General Hospital, with 325 staff members, is now Coupeville's largest single employer. Many more jobs have been created in the offices of specialists, nursing homes, and other health-related enterprises that have sprung up around the island's only hospital.

Coupeville itself isn't likely to grow much, and that's the way the locals like it. Geographically squeezed between the waters of Penn Cove and the preserve farmland, Coupeville doesn't have much space to grow.

But the really big problem is water.

Like Sequim, the Olympic Peninsula's sun belt retirement center, Coupeville is in the rain shadow of the Olympics. Coupeville's annual rainfall of 18 inches is less than half that of soggy Seattle.

With no rivers or big freshwater lakes, Coupeville is dependent on wells for its water supply. And the lack of rain limits the amount of water that can be drawn from the aquifers.

Several years ago, Coupeville had a moratorium on new water hookups. Because of conservation and improvements to the pumping system, new hookups are now allowed -- at the whopping price of $10,000 per home site. Monthly rates are also high, "and the water tastes so terrible you can't even make coffee with it," griped one resident.

Mayor Nancy Conard estimates that the water supply is now adequate for another 350 homes. But she doesn't see any affordable way of providing for further growth when those hookups are used up.

A new filtration system soon should improve the water's taste, Conard said.

The mayor said she prides herself on running an open town hall, inviting residents to come in and talk about things. But few citizens drop by to gripe. "It's usually when I'm at the grocery store or the post office, people come up to complain about the high water rates and the water quality," she said.

"I also hear a lot of positive things. People say it feels safe to live here."

Conard, 45, moved to Coupeville as a child and said she could remember only two murders. One was in 1973 and the other in the early 1980s.

In spite of some problems with burglary and vandalism, a tax measure to increase the Police Department to five full-timers last year seems to have helped cut juvenile crime, Conard said.

Continued:

• People and scenery lend charm to this historic town
• Stronger economy is a goal