Oak Harbor is requesting proposals from contractors to design a new well after an emergency source of water, known as Well 9, became plugged over time.

While this is not out of the ordinary for how old the well is, Public Works Director Steve Schuller said it is yet another canary warning of what he considers one of the city’s top issues — the future of Oak Harbor’s water.

“If you run out of water, it’s a pretty big deal, right?” he said.

While drinking water is piped in from the Skagit River, Oak Harbor’s emergency water comes from the ground. Public works staff test these wells every month, putting some groundwater into the system to make sure they still work. A consulting firm will help Schuller figure out where to drill the new well, how deep it needs to go and to which aquifer.

“It’s a real critical system that in essence we hope we never use, but we want to have available to make sure the community and our island is resilient,” he said.

The main drinking water system is fragile, Schuller said.

“All of those customers get their drinking water for their homes and for their businesses and for their operations from two pipes that go over the Deception Pass bridge,” he said.

The two steel pipes bringing water into Oak Habor were installed by the Navy in the 1940s. The bottom has corroded, and pinhole leaks last year forced Anacortes to turn a valve to shut it down so they could fix the problem.

Repairs are difficult, Schuller said. It’s a bottlenecked, high-traffic area suspended nearly 200 feet.

“Can you imagine back in the 1940s?” Schuller asked. “They had to chip through that rock to put the water line in.”

Now, the lines are back in service, but they are past their useful life.

Replacing just the six miles of pipe that Oak Harbor owns from the bridge to town could cost over $20 million, Schuller said. Worse yet, an earthquake could knock the pipes into the sea no matter if they have been replaced.

Those emergency wells may not be for emergencies in the future.

Soon, the city will have to answer the question, Schuller said: Is it better to replace the line or invest in additional groundwater storage?

Following the city’s comprehensive plan due next year, staff will draft the water comprehensive plan, which starts with a water rate study. It’s a long process and a dire one, Schuller said.