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Critical Areas Ordinance

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critical areas ordinance

Critical Areas Ordinance: What It Is and Why We Should Care
Article written by Carmela Alexander

Critical: Crucial; essential to a condition or project, but in short supply.
-American Heritage Dictionary

Sixteen years ago the Washington State legislature passed the Growth Management Act (GMA), a law requiring cities and counties to create land use plans that manage development while protecting natural resources. Specific protections are required for the following critical areas: geologically hazardous areas, frequently flooded areas, critical aquifer recharge areas, wetlands, and fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas.

San Juan County responded to this mandate by creating an Environmentally Sensitive Areas District overlay to its comprehensive plan, with regulations concerning each of the five critical areas. A few years later the legislature amended the GMA to require local jurisdictions to employ the “best available science” in land-use decision-making; that is, critical areas regulations must be formulated in light of documented research. In the absence of existing scientific data, counties must either limit development or use adaptive management, regulating the critical area and evaluating results scientifically in an ongoing “experiment” to determine the possible negative effects of development. Furthermore, the state required that anadromous fish, such as San Juan County’s salmon, must be given “special consideration”, including the maintenance of salmon prey species.

In 2002 another amendment required counties to review comprehensive plans every seven years and revise, if necessary, in order to reassess that the ecological functions of critical areas were not being degraded by ongoing development. San Juan County is now faced with updating its ordinances to incorporate “best available science” and protection of salmon prey species.

The state does not mandate a single approach to critical areas protection. Each county or city develops its own strategies. However, critical areas must be managed in such a way that their values are preserved with “no net loss of ecological function.” Counties may protect identified critical areas and their buffer zones by non-regulatory means (conservation easements, public education, etc.) or by regulatory means (subdivision codes, clearing and grading ordinances, zoning, critical areas regulations, etc.). In order to be effective, regulation must be coupled with enforcement.

“[T]o preserve our natural environment and protect the public’s health and safety,” the state of Washington has designated five types of environmentally significant critical areas: wetlands, fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas, critical aquifer recharge areas, geologically hazardous areas, and frequently flooded areas. Critical areas fall into two overlapping categories: those that are ecologically valuable for the life-sustaining benefits they provide and those that are hazardous to human safety.

Wetlands
Wetlands come in various guises―swamps, marshes, and bogs, both salt and fresh―but all perform yeoman duty as modulators of the hydrogeologic cycle. When rain pounds down, wetlands act to capture, store, and finally gently release that rainwater into aquifers and streams. Wetlands also moderate the sometimes fierce interface between winter waves and dry land, stabilizing shorelines and protecting both wildlife habitat and human activities on land. Wetlands are ubiquitous; they can be small or large, in forest or along the shore. Currently in San Juan County wetlands are rated and regulated according to their sensitivity to disturbance, rarity, irreplaceability, and the functions and values they provide.

Fish and Wildlife Habitat
San Juan County’s forested uplands, beaches, and nearshore waters are a nursery and refuge for countless species. GMA guidelines require protection of the habitats of endangered species and of species of local importance.

Four years ago FRIENDS, aware of the lack of data about San Juan County’s nearshore habitat, secured grant funding for studies that would provide the groundwork for thoughtful land-use decisions. Two major studies were completed by FRIENDS in partnership with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, University of Washington, Department of Natural Resources, and the Marine Resources Committee. One examined the distribution of eelgrass, the underwater “forest” that has been likened to a tropical rainforest in the diversity of its denizens. Another study catalogued the spawning sites of forage fish―Pacific sand lance, surf smelt, and Pacific herring―the small darting fish that feed Puget Sound’s endangered salmon, salmon that in turn feed the endangered Southern Resident Orcas. A third study, on kelp, is planned.

Critical areas provide their benefits through a delicate balance perfected by the earth over eons. If that functioning system is destroyed, it is extremely difficult―or impossible―to recreate. Restoration is expensive and inadequate; preservation takes foresight and commitment to our own well-being and to the future of the San Juan Islands.

Critical Aquifer Recharge Areas
Aquifers are water-bearing layers of rock and soil that store water underground. In San Juan County more than half the population taps these aquifers for drinking water. In order to qualify as a “critical” aquifer recharge area, the land must contribute significantly to the replenishment of groundwater or it must be highly susceptible to contamination by pollutants from the surface. Typical pollutants include petroleum products from automobiles and other machinery, fertilizers, and inadequately treated animal and human wastes.

State guidelines call for counties to evaluate the risk of contamination via several parameters. For instance, if the depth to groundwater is shallow, an aquifer is at greater risk because contaminants may not be filtered by plants and soil. Similarly, highly permeable sandy soil permits the quick infiltration of surface water, putting the aquifer at greater risk. San Juan County also faces the possibility of seawater intrusion into fresh water aquifers (see FRIENDS’ summer 2005 newsletter). Although state regulations fail to regulate seawater intrusion in the context of critical aquifer recharge areas, good planning for San Juan County demands that the risk of seawater contamination also be taken into account.

Doug Kelly, consulting hydrogeologist for San Juan County, is preparing a four-layer county map to delineate and characterize critical aquifer recharge areas. Each map layer will describe and score one aspect of aquifer risk: the soil permeability, the aquifer’s surficial geology (whether it is in bedrock, or not), its recharge capability, and the depth to groundwater. Scores from each map will be combined to give a susceptibility rating for each critical aquifer area.

Low Impact Development practices benefit aquifers by retaining rainwater until it can be slowly infiltrated into the aquifer, thus filtering pollutants, bolstering drinking water resources, and forestalling seawater intrusion by increasing aquifer recharge.

Geologically Hazardous Areas

Geological hazards take a variety of forms: abandoned mines that could cave in, emit noxious gases, or contaminate groundwater with poisonous metals; filled wetlands whose soils would be unstable in a seismic event; coastal bluffs and other slopes subject to landslides or erosion; or tsunami-prone lowlands and inlets. For the sake of human welfare and safety, the state requires that such areas be delineated and that development be regulated or prohibited.

Frequently flooded Areas
Streams overflow; rivers slow, broaden, and create new channels as they reach their mouths; storm waves surge over coastal areas. Flood-prone areas constitute a hazard to property and sometimes to human life. However, some frequently flooded areas also serve a valuable function as part of a natural hydrological process by which flood waters are slowed and distributed over the land allowing aquifers to be recharged.

What Can You Do?
Be alert and be concerned. Support regulations that recognize the irreplaceable benefits of the earth’s natural processes. Comment at public hearings. Write letters to the editor. Inform neighbors. For updated information please call the FRIENDS’ office, 360-378-2319.