County Plan: Pollute One Creek To Help Save Another -- Little Soos Water To Be Piped To Pristine Basin

COVINGTON - King County officials have come up with an unusual way to cope with declining water quality caused by development along a small creek east of Kent: Pipe polluted water out of the watershed into a more pristine basin nearby.

That recommendation is part of a drainage plan aimed at protecting the fragile Soos Creek basin in the face of development in Covington.

King County has designated Covington an "urban-activity center" in which apartments, shopping centers, business parks, industries, and high-density single-family subdivisions are allowed.

To prevent worse pollution of Little Soos Creek - where fecal coliform levels already exceed state limits - the county's Surface Water Management Division proposes to divert contaminated runoff from the Little Soos basin into the nearby Jenkins Creek basin.

Copper running into Little Soos Creek from a variety of human sources is "at the threshold" of harming fish, said Tom Hubbard, project manager of the Covington drainage plan.

Diverting storm water from Little Soos into an adjacent basin drained by larger, cleaner Jenkins Creek would dilute the pollutants. The creeks both join Big Soos Creek south of Covington.

Jenkins Creek is one of the most pristine tributaries of Soos Creek, according to the Soos Creek Basin Plan completed last year. Because little development has occurred in the upper reaches of the creek, little flooding occurs. The creek offers some of the best

salmon-rearing habitat in King County.

The basin plan called the land around upper Jenkins Creek a "regionally significant area" that should be kept rural. The County Council has adopted interim rural zoning of 4,500 acres there.

Under long-standing county plans reaffirmed in the new Covington drainage plan, the lower reaches of Jenkins and Little Soos creeks could be intensively developed.

The drainage plan, scheduled for release today, was ordered by the County Council. County officials haven't yet settled on the how to pipe water from one basin to the other.

Renee Guillierie, spokeswoman for the state Department of Ecology, said she was not familiar with the proposal to pipe water from the Little Soos Creek basin to the Jenkins Creek basin. She said the department's main concern would be to ensure the plan doesn't lead to flooding problems or violations of water-quality standards in Jenkins Creek.

County officials expect some deterioration in water quality but not enough to violate state standards.

Officials said the plan, written by the Surface Water Management Division and consultant R.W. Beck and Associates, will recommended other measures to minimize damage to the water table and creeks, including:

-- Requiring new developments to build ponds and swales to capture storm-water runoff and pollutants.

-- Replacing septic tanks with sewer lines.

-- Increasing setbacks of developments from wetlands.

-- Limiting stream crossings for roads and utilities, restricting the amount of paving, and limiting businesses that use hazardous materials.

The drainage plan also will call for an end to use of wells that draw drinking water from the shallow aquifer. Porous soils leave the aquifer vulnerable to contamination.

Slow-growth advocates and developers briefed on the Covington plan have criticized it as inconsistent with the low-density recommendations of the larger Soos Creek Basin Plan.

Palmer Coking Coal manager Bill Kombol, who served on the citizens advisory committee on the Soos Creek Basin Plan, is upset that county planners are calling for high-density development in Covington while allowing only one home per 5 acres in most of the Jenkins and Covington Creek watersheds.

He said the 5-acre moratorium "is just a ruse" to allow development by some selected developers while leaving other landowners "holding the 5-acre bag."

Virginia Levack, a member of the Covington Neighbors Council, which opposes continued urban development, said members were "totally shocked" by the plan.

She said the Covington area should be rezoned for less development if that's what it takes to keep streams pure.