written by: Mary Bruno

This is the third in a monthly series of guest blog posts that Mary will be sharing about island water quality topics thru the Groundwater Protection Committee.

Meet Jim Garrison, co-owner of Burton Water Company, one of Vashon’s oldest purveyors of H2O. Burton Water was created in the early twentieth century to provide water for now-defunct Burton College. Jim’s uncle Gerry bought the company in 1951. Water has been the Garrison family business ever since. Jim went to work for his uncle in 1975. In 2007, he took over the company with business partner and co-owner, Evan Simmons. These days Burton Water is the third largest water provider on the Island. Its 25 wells and well points deliver almost 23 million gallons annually to 400 Burton-area homes. Jim is now 69 and planning his retirement. As a Vashon native and a 45-year veteran of its water business, he speaks with passion and candor about providing water and protecting the supply. I talked with Jim Garrison in September 2020. Here, in the first of two installments, is what he had to say about running a water business, almost selling it to an out-of-state utility, the true cost of water, and whether we have enough.

[Note: My questions appear in bold.]

After 45 years with Burton Water Company—13 of those as an owner—you and your longtime business partner, Evan Simmons, are in the process of retiring. You plan to turn operations over to Evan’s son, Nick Simmons. But as recently as 2018, you seriously considered selling the company to one of two large, non-local  utilities—Gig Harbor-based Washington Water Service and Portland’s NW Natural. What made you entertain and ultimately reject their offers?

“The first part I can answer easily. I’m 69. Evan is 72. After a while you just get tired of standing out there with a shovel in the rain. We were getting to that point. It had always been our plan to try to recoup our investment in the company. One option was to sell [the company] to our customers, but it’s quite difficult. You have to pretty much get every customer to approve the sale. The customers at Gold Beach had turned down [a similar proposal in 2018]. And then these two companies showed up, clearly with an appetite for expanding their domain. It looked like a good thing to do. Then we started looking at the reviews from customers of water companies that had sold to those corporations.”

And . . . ?

“The reviews weren’t very good. Mostly, things like, ‘I forgot to pay my bill and they shut my water off.’ We haven’t shut anybody’s water off for non-payment. Ever. We figure out a way to make a deal. If you’re a single mom with two kids we never shut your water off. We are a compassionate company.”

So, instead of selling you decided to transfer Burton Water to Nick.

“Which is a much better outcome for us and our customers, I believe. But I will put one caveat on that: Infrastructure replacement has become really, really expensive and most small, independently owned and operated water companies are capital poor. Those utility companies willing to buy these small water companies have a lot of capital. There are pipes in the ground at Burton Water Company that are well over a hundred years old. Customers would benefit from that capital infusion that we just don’t have.”

Of the seven large water systems on Vashon-Maury Island, two are privately held for-profit operations (Burton and Gold Beach), four are community-owned non-profits (Westside, Heights, Maury Mutual, Dockton) and one (Water District 19) is public-entity, special-purpose water district of King County. Since most are confronting aging infrastructure and aging management, what does the future look like for providers and their customers?

“People are going to have to pay what it actually costs to have water delivered to their homes. Burton Water Company’s average monthly bill is $50-$60. It would cost us about $10-12 million to replace all our old tanks, pipes, pumps and treatment systems. That means customers would have to pay an additional $1,000 a year for the next 30 years. That doesn’t seem like a lot of money to be able to turn on the tap every day and know water’s going to run. But it’s difficult. Some of our customers can’t afford it. Nobody likes to see their water bill go up.”
So, out-of-state utility companies can buy local water companies?

“There’s nothing to prevent it if that utility is in good standing. In fact, the Washington Health Department, Department of Ecology, King County, every regulatory agency is encouraging it. They want consolidation. It’s easier to regulate. You only have one person you have to call.”

Would consolidation and corporate ownership of water systems be good for us customers?

“If infrastructure and capital improvements are at the top of your agenda, it would be better. But if community access and customer satisfaction are at the top of your agenda it’s probably going to be worse. You know what it’s like. If you want to get something done by, say, Verizon there’s not even a phone number you can call to talk to anybody. That’s what it would turn into.”

Aside from how it’s managed and regulated, a recurring question about Vashon water is do we have enough. Do we?

“Well, I was heavily involved with the [1983] Carr Report, and also with the Vashon Coordinated Water System Plan that was submitted in 1990. After years of looking at that question I don’t really have any idea. And I don’t think anybody really does. J. R.  Carr’s main concern wasn’t the supply, it was septic effluent getting into the groundwater. But I don’t even know how good a study that was. So I don’t know that anybody really knows the answer to that question. But I will go to my grave fighting for it being an unknown and that we should err on the side of extreme, extreme caution. Because once you lose your [local] water supply, then it’s got to come from somewhere else, and that’s the death knell for this lovely little island in terms of population growth. They’ll figure out how to get enough water. They’ll just have to carve every piece of property into quarter acre lots to be able to afford it.”

In Part 2 of our conversation, Jim Garrison talks about concerns over RAP (Recycled Asphalt Pavement), the fragility of our shallow groundwater supply, and his nitrate battle with neighboring Misty Isle Farms. Read part 2 here!

Featured photo: The real Jim Garrison. photo by: Mary Bruno