To the editor:

Perhaps the highlight of water focused conference held this past weekend at IslandWood:

Peter Bannister (associate engineer, Aspect Consulting): Lead consultant the city uses concluding that Bainbridge Island’s water modeling, with uber precautionary levels of global warming predictions, including 4 feet of sea level increase, wells increasing withdrawals by 50 percent, and a very conservative 20 percent reduction in groundwater infiltration — no expected saltwater intrusion and no water shortage projected for the next 100 years.

ZI didn’t think I would ever hear that said in public by a city-contracted professional hydrologist. It’s exactly what is in Aspect Consulting’s latest water contact memorandum, and adds to the USGS 2035 target model that predicts no saltwater intrusion and no water shortage.

Of course, any model may prove to be wrong. But it’s obviously any groundwater model flaws are not likely to occur for many years from now — perhaps decades.

The point is this city is largely wasting money hiring a hydrologist at this point in time, and the criteria for a water management plan is grossly ill-defined on what problem the city is trying to either find or solve.

Spend the allocated money on something practical and/or useful.

ROBERT DASHIELL

Bainbridge Island