The water has started to recede on a parcel of farmland that has been home to ducks, geese and a few plastic pink flamingos in recent months.

Each winter, the once productive, low-lying farmland on Ebey’s Prairie begins to take on water and form a large, shallow pool, transforming a dry field into a glassy, freshwater oasis for waterfowl. It’s happened so frequently over the years that locals have affectionately named the seasonal pond “Lake Ralph” after Ralph Engle, the land’s owner.

The pond, located west of Engle Road, is not a new phenomenon, yet it’s raising some new concerns.

Over the past five years or so, observers have noticed the pond growing larger. This year, it has swelled beyond what many longtime prairie residents could ever recall.

“It’s by far the worst this year,” said retired farmer Roger Sherman, who’s watched the pond evolve from his home that overlooks the prairie.

The size of this year’s pool is no surprise considering its history and the heavy rains that saturated Central Whidbey Island soils over the winter.

Nearly 11 inches of rain fell in November and December, which is more than half of the area’s annual total. The frequent rains left several fields on the prairie underwater this spring until the recent spate of sunshine started to dry some of them out.

The wet winter only magnified the long-standing drainage issues at the Engle property. The land rests on an extreme low point on the prairie that has turned it into a collection basin for unfiltered stormwater that rolls in from higher ground.

For years, the stormwater infrastructure that used to drain the Engle property has been failing, leading to the large pool of water on the surface, according to Rob Hallbauer, natural resources planner for the Whidbey Conversation District.

The property is connected to an aging, 12-inch drainage pipe system that is made up of clay tiles believed to have been installed by Chinese laborers in the 1930s or 1940s, according to Karen Bishop, Whidbey Conservation District manager.

The clay tiles, including the mainline and a network of other adjoining smaller lines, have mostly been compressed by heavy machinery and have collapsed over the decades, rendering the dated system largely non-functional, said Dave Engle, Ralph’s brother.

“Undoubtedly, that’s the heart of the matter,” Dave Engle said. “That’s the most water I have ever seen.”

Len Engle, who farms his cousin’s land, estimates that more than one million gallons of water collected on the property this year. He wants to see the farmland productive again, boasting healthy yields of barley and corn, but believes there needs to be shared responsibility over the massive volume of water and collective efforts to fix the problem.

“The farmland in Coupeville is the lowest land around,” Len Engle said. “What runs downhill beside water? Not a whole lot. Liquid goes downhill. We’re the low ground.”

Engle points uphill to account for a heavy portion of the water that’s collected on his cousin’s land.

The dated underground drainage system to which the Engle land is connected originates near the prairie’s high point at State Highway 20 and travels downhill along Main Street and Engle Road before cutting across private farmland, including the Engle property, in a diagonal fashion. It ultimately discharges at Ebey’s Landing into Puget Sound.

The old drainage system doesn’t stand up to the town’s growth and greater stormwater demands created by more impervious surfaces.

“If you’re at the top of the hill, when you get rid of water, it’s somebody else’s problem,” Len Engle said.

Opportunities have surfaced that might’ve resolved the issue.

Around 1980, a more modern, stormwater system involving a 15-inch pipe was installed but the drainage system on the Engle property was never connected to it.

The newer system originates at the wetland behind Coupeville High School/Middle School and travels to Engle Road before cutting across farmland to the same Ebey’s Landing outfall.

“The contractor that did that did not tie all of the side tiles into it,” Len Engle said.

Three years ago, Island County installed a concrete catch basin in the right-of-way off Engle Road in an effort to help drain Lake Ralph into the 15-inch mainline.

Len Engle estimates the cost to dig a trench over about 200 feet and connect to their system to the catch basin might be $10,000, which is more than he and his cousin can afford.

“The bottom line is who’s going to pay for it?” he said.

The Whidbey Conservation District has recognized that the drainage issue in the Ebey’s Prairie watershed is much more widespread than what’s happening with the Engles and has been working with farmers to try to help, Bishop said.

Several fields became flooded over the winter, including Georgie Smith’s Willowood Farm on Ebey’s Road and even some of Karen and Wilbur Bishop’s own land on the same road.

Wilbur and Julieanna Purdue, who own Prairie Bottom Farm on Engle Road, also are waiting for part of their farmland to dry out.

Since 2013, the Whidbey Conservation District has looked deeper at the stormwater issues in the prairie watershed through grant-funded projects aimed at improving water quality.

Samplings at the Ebey’s Landing outfall have shown significant water quality issues dating back to 1997.

Karen Bishop said the patchwork tile systems scattered throughout Ebey’s Prairie were designed to drain farmland and not to support the greater demands placed upon them by the town’s growth and development happening on higher ground.

“It’s commercial, it’s residential and it’s roads,” Bishop said. “Highway 20 was built in the late 60s. That created a lot of water. It’s clear when you walk out there, where it goes.”

Another thing that’s clear in recent years is the problem appears to be gradually getting worse.

“Those drainage systems are not designed and engineered for that volume of water,” Bishop said. “It’s a big problem for farmers.

“And the question is, ‘Who bears the cost?’ I think we’re at a stage where we need to look at the whole watershed and we need to redesign the drainage system for the whole watershed.”

Len Engle is confident in the Conservation District’s ability to take the lead in helping solve the issue.

“There are innovative people who want to help keep contaminants out of the Sound,” he said. “Something’s got to be done or we’re going to have a big swamp in the prairie at some point.”

Some would say that time has already arrived, at least part of the year. In recent years, Len Engle has had to wait until July before he could plant crops on the 20 or more acres that seasonally become submerged.

One option is letting the low-lying land return to its historic natural wetland state that it was before being converted to farmland a century ago.

That idea has been proposed to the Engles.

Karen Bishop grew up on the prairie, hearing stories of a resident rowing his boat across the pond long ago.

“If farmland just continues to be wet and there’s an environmental benefit for giving it up for farming, there are programs that reimburse the farmer for the loss of productive farmland,” Bishop said.