As I write this, the sun is blazing hot. But the forecast for Friday — when you will walk across the stage and transform from Sequim student to student of the world — is rain.
We need it (the rain). And we need you: another Sequim graduate, brought up in a town that values water. You were raised with the annual Irrigation Festival, school trips to Railroad Bridge Park, the clean taste of a cold glass out of the kitchen tap and fishing for trout at Carrie Blake — or perhaps for salmon in the Dungeness.
This community, this place, has given you a solid foundation that will serve you well as you join the rest of your generation in making the world better. You’ve probably noticed that change is the new normal.
You’ll be in the middle of and hopefully helping to steer that change and I believe that your hometown foundation will steer you toward an appreciation of natural resources that can be applied to any vocation or avocation.
What about a career in water? Need I suggest that a more fascinating and relevant topic can’t be found … and if you like job security, you’ve got it! A career in water keeps you closely connected with your surroundings, whether with your chosen community or spanning the globe.
Here are a few ideas:
Engineering-oriented people are needed to find “new” sources of water to supply growing cities and growing food while preserving supplies utilized by nature. “New water” is the wave of the future of water supply — meaning utilization of treated wastewater, stormwater, seawater and even condensation.
Designing ways and places to store water is another area ripe for expansion. In Sequim, it’s well known we need a reservoir to store water for drought resilience, but the high cost of construction has funders shaking their heads. It’s time to figure out what the cost will be if we don’t build it — with help from a natural resource economist.
Are you health oriented? Consider city water in Flint, Mich., that was so corrosive it caused lead poisoning in kids who drank it over a period of several months. Locally, our school district found it needs to upgrade fixtures, at a minimum, but health officials testify that levels found in our taps are low enough that our children aren’t at risk of poisoning from drinking water, compared to exposure from lead paint or other environmental sources. Periodic blood testing of children in Clallam County indicates that there is no pervasive problem.
Plus, drinking water source testing does not show a corrosivity problem.
If critters and plants are your passion, become a water quality activist for pollution prevention and responsible development.
Business-minded? Invest in green energy technologies that can power water recycling facilities — already underway in the Middle East and elsewhere. This work always will be needed.
Do you like science as well as money? Help resolve the pollution problem that currently limits the shellfish industry in our local marine waters.
Finally, if you like policy, a specialty in water law would bring a lifetime of interesting challenges. Water rights protect water quantity and the right to clean water protects water quality. Bureaucracies are in charge of administering laws but the interpretation of those laws — as experienced with the Dungeness Water Rule — can change. The original water laws of the West (in particular, “use it or lose it” and “first in time is first in right”) often are unfair but so far hold strong. Maybe someday they will evolve to match the needs of modern society.
Perspective
Sequim High graduates, you didn’t have a movie theater but you had views like there’s no tomorrow.
You didn’t have a shopping mall but our merchants gave out candy at Halloween and donated to every fundraiser you brought in the door. You couldn’t waterski on a clear morning but hopefully you picked fresh berries or flowers from the farm down the road and dug for clams at the state park.
And, true, you couldn’t reliably get a modern rock station to come in clearly but you’ve had this gem of a local newspaper. A weekly reminder of the heroic volunteers, donors, teachers, athletes — and all of us regular folks who put our heart and soul into this place we love.
As you enter the wider world, you have in your core an understanding, and thus an appreciation, of this particular spot on the globe. The Sequim Prairie. The Dungeness Watershed. The North Olympic Peninsula.
Wherever you end up — and whether or not water is your vocation, avocation or neither — consider these words from the poet Gary Snyder: “Find your place on the planet. Dig in, and take responsibility from there.”
Geek moment
Snow depth (and snow-water equivalent) at the Dungeness SNOTEL site = DRY (since late March, several weeks early)
Cumulative rainfall in Sequim for the water year (starting Oct. 1) = 18.4 inches (above average) (at Sequim Water Reclamation Facility, elev. 45 ft.)
Streamflow in the Dungeness River (on June 7) = 850 cubic feet per second (higher than average but dropping, due to cooler temperatures and/or lack of snow)
Ann Soule’s only daughter is a 2016 Sequim High School graduate. Soule is a licensed hydrogeologist working in the Dungeness Watershed since 1990. She now works for City of Sequim. Reach her at columnists@sequimgazette.com.
