A handful of residents in the Dugualla Bay area say that their diking district is not properly protecting their property.
At the core of their concerns is what some call the “non-functional” board of Diking District 3 and a couple of projects they say they weren’t properly informed about.
“The district has a problem calling meetings,” said district resident Dave Burbank.
“They literally have not done anything. Their job is to maintain the dike,” he said. “It’s been an ongoing battle since I’ve been here.”
The state Department of Transportation plans to close Dike Road west of Dugualla Bay for several months this year to complete improvements that includes restoring salmon habitat.
The project is “environmental mitigation” for a Camano Island DOT project that will destroy an existing salmon habitat.
According to state and federal regulations, a new habitat must be created to compensate for the loss. The project will entail raising Dike Road to serve as a new dike and breaching the existing dike.
Diking district members such as Becky Spraitzar say the district board should be more involved in such projects to protect the property owners’ interests.
“This is pretty important stuff,” Spraitzar said. “It has to be handled differently. The diking district needs to be the one in charge.”
“They’re not reporting back to us.”
DOT representatives said they last met with the diking district more than a year ago, but a different design was in place at the time.
“Originally we weren’t going to affect the county road, we were going to build a new dike parallel to Dike Road, but it provided some challenges,” said Jay Drye, DOT engineering manager. “Doing it this way ends up being a better design, better habitat. We do owe them a follow up which we haven’t done at this point in time.”
The DOT has since scheduled a follow-up meeting about the Dike Road project with district members. It’s set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, at the Taylor Road fire station.
A separate project outlined under the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project would, if funded, put a large portion of the diking district underwater to restore more than 500 acres of salt marsh and mudflats. PSNERP was formed in 2001 as a partnership between the state Wildlife and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Though that project has long been in the discussion process, the 12 or so property owners within Diking District 3 only recently learned that it may be moving forward, Burbank said.
Burbank said the project would put his home directly within the newly created wetlands.
A public comment period for the project was held late last year.
While saying she understands why the PSNERP project would concern residents, executive director for the Whidbey Camano Land Trust Pat Powell said it’s a “pipe dream” that is unlikely to happen.
As a member of the diking district, the Land Trust has historically also had a hard time working with Diking District 3 board members, Powell said.
Powell said she was unsuccessful in obtaining something as simple as the original map of the district from the board.
“We have continued to ask at the few meetings there have been, also to no avail,” Powell said.
Before abruptly ending a call for comment, district board member Bonnie Newkirk said only that the board meets annually.
Board member Ron Christensen returned a phone call, but said in a voice message the board is “looking into it” and did not wish to comment.
A second phone call from the newspaper was not returned.
Board member Grant Heiken, who also serves on the board of the Whidbey Camano Land Trust, did not return a phone call by press time.
Diking District 3 was formed in the early 1900s to tax area property owners to build and maintain a dike that allowed them to reclaim tidelands and use them for farming purposes.
As such, projects affecting the dike should, in theory, be vetted by the district.
Largely dormant, the district has not assessed a tax since the 2010-2011 tax year, according to the Island County Assessor’s Office.
