Letter: Sewage plant will work in Freeland
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Editor,
Though shadowed by those Seahawk exploits, our Freeland sewer recently drew some attention. Thank you Richard Delmonte for your thumbs down appraisal (Feb. 11 letter to the editor) which at least fosters conversation.
Here’s where we differ. He says sprawl is controlled by zoning. So the county, at considerable expense, zoned Freeland for dense growth but that zoning takes effect only after a sewer is installed. Consequently, here we are decades later, without a sewer and 85% of new population growth going to the rural areas of South Whidbey, in stark contrast to the state Growth Management Act goals and those of our own Comp plan. Such activity is the very definition of sprawl (increased density in the rural area).
Richard says we’ll have to pump the affluent into the Sound. I, however, proposed a MBR sewer system where effluent is treated to a class A purity and discharged back into the aquifer, not the bay. He says sprawl is controlled by efficient zoning. The county has created the zoning in Freeland, but it’s only activated when the sewer comes.
Richard was an anti-sewer voice back in the 2007 time frame when the Freeland Water and Sewer fatefully attempted such a project. Back then, the county declared Freeland an entity called an Urban Growth Area whose purpose was to absorb population growth, provide affordable housing and preserve our rural character — just as the state and our GMA Growth Plan professes.
The Freeland Sewer never materialized and the sprawl continues until the county fulfills obligations to provide the infrastructure to implement our own comprehensive growth plan. Neighboring Jefferson County faced the same quandry for two decades until they successfully fired up an MBR sewer to turn their non-functional UGA at Port Hadlock last September.
Let’s keep talking and planning for the desired future we’ve identified, complete with affordable housing, rural character and ample natural environment.
Dean Enell
Langley
