Grays Harbor County will seek funding for a new Copalis Rocks water system.

Commissioner Wes Cormier was the lone dissenting vote to a funding application the county is planning to submit to the state Department of Health.

In total, the project will cost more than $370,000. The county is applying for the funding and eventually will take ownership of the new water system, when the funding is received, as a utility local improvement district (ULID).

According to Commissioner Vickie Raines, the state Department of Health has warned that the current water system soon will fail.

“They’re pumping at about 7 gallons a minute,” Raines said. “That’s pretty low in comparison to what they should be at.”

The pump services 29 connections. Most of those connections are vacation properties. The property owners will pay for the cost of the new water system over time in addition to their standard utility rates.

Because the county is eventually taking ownership, the bill will be cut in half, and only $185,000 will be paid back when all is said and done.

For Cormier, the issue is the ownership.

“I would prefer receivership rather than this,” Cormier said. Through that process, residents would need to take out loans to pay for the improvements. “The county doesn’t have to take it over.”

Commissioner Raines noted that the process is similar to the new water system at Illahee/Oyehut, and at Seabrook.

“Why would we do that, though, if we could do this at no cost to the county?” Raines asked Cormier.

“Because the county will own it,” Cormier said. “There are 70 other systems out there, and we set this kind of precedent moving forward we may own 70 other systems.”

Commissioners Randy Ross and Raines voted for the agreement.