County officials also hope it will end an ongoing dispute with the Willows Run Golf Course. State regulators last summer accused course managers of illegally taking too much water from the river to keep fairways green. Golf course representatives contend they can use the water because they acquired water rights of farmers who previously owned the land. The state has said those permits expired in the late 1970s, when those farmers quit working the land. Willows Run spokesman Michael Nank said the deal to get some county water rights and to eventually use treated water would help the situation.
Critical details remain incomplete.
The state has yet to approve the transfer of the rights. How the system would be financed remains to be worked out. The water, Sims said, will meet state and federal standards for use on organic and standard crops and will exceed the discharge quality pumped into the Puget Sound by the two existing sewage treatment plants. The water won't meet drinking water standards, he said. Standing at a garden test plot where the county uses recycled water, Sims plucked and then ate a piece of lettuce after a television reporter asked him to prove that the water won't adversely affect food crops.