BI Comp Plan’s DEIS full of misinformation

The city of Bainbridge Island is updating its Comprehensive Plan, as required by the state Growth Management Act. As part of that process, COBI issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement listing three possible alternatives for future growth.

Alternative 1 plans for 4,524 new residents by 2044, conforming to the growth allocation for BI under the existing GMA scheme. The DEIS incorrectly asserts, however, that Alternative 1 fails to satisfy the affordable housing “mandate” of the GMA.

It therefore advocates for Alternatives 2 or 3, which plan for over 11,000 new residents (more than double the GMA requirement, increasing BI population by over 40%). Alternative 2 contemplates 11,601 new residents; Alternative 3 plans for 11,061. COBI would facilitate that dramatic growth by rezoning for greater density, building height and/or expansion of Winslow and Neighborhood Centers like Lynwood, Rolling Bay and Island Center.

As BI residents and professional hydrogeologists serving on the city’s Environmental Technical Advisory Committee and Groundwater Management Plan Subcommittee, we are alarmed by COBI’s failure to understand the significance of our status as a Sole Source Aquifer. The US Environmental Protection Agency designated Bainbridge as an SSA in 2013, in response to a petition that we authored. That designation comprises several aquifers of different depths and locations on BI.

All of our aquifers, however, are reliant on precipitation, protection of wetlands and other critical areas, and stormwater management for aquifer recharge. Bainbridge does not have mountain snowmelt or large rivers, which other cities in Washington rely on for water supply and aquifer recharge. Instead, we are totally reliant on the aquifers, and over-development and excessive water extraction threatens their recharge and sustainability. A drop in aquifer levels could result in seawater intrusion and contamination of the BI water supply.

Despite purporting to address “environmental impacts,” the DEIS fails to mention our SSA status, much less grapple with the implications of that hugely significant fact for the pro-growth Alternatives that it advocates.

Likewise, its gloss on the GMA fails to acknowledge that the statute respects our SSA status, by including a section (RCW 36.70A.635) that exempts BI from certain housing density requirements applicable elsewhere. That provision was passed in 2024 and therefore controls over any conflicting provisions passed earlier. The DEIS relies on a housing amendment passed in 2021. But, contrary to the DEIS assertion, even that amendment does not impose “mandates” that nullify protection for critical resources like aquifers.

The DEIS also lacks a finalized Groundwater Management Plan and Groundwater Model Update. It does not discuss the constraints on water supply and depleted aquifers as reflected by BI’s declining streams and drawdown of the deep Fletcher Bay Aquifer. Nor does it address the need for significant improvement of water infrastructure (currently unfunded), much less the enormous costs of mitigation measures if the pro-growth Alternatives are adopted.

While our City Council authorized the preparation of a GWMP over six years ago, it has not pushed it to completion. The DEIS should not be finalized without the completion of a GWMP, which is a prerequisite for any responsible growth planning.

ETAC and the GWMP Subcommittee have not seen a draft GWMP since the previous COBI hydrogeologist left COBI employment two years ago. We have only had discussions concerning the contractor’s preliminary modeling updates, and so far we believe the model is being “reverse engineered” with selected data to support high-growth Alternatives advanced in the DEIS.

This politicized process subverts basic scientific standards, undermines confidence in local government and threatens the well-being of the community.

Fresh, clean water is the most important resource we have on BI, and it is a vulnerable and limited resource. Its availability will determine the future quality of life for residents, and the value of their homes and businesses.

Please consider contacting City Council members to request a revised DEIS that includes a GWMP and rejects irresponsible population increases in the absence of adequate information about the sustainability of BI’s water supply.

Melanie Keenan and Malcolm Gander of BI are members of Bainbridge Conservation Coalition.