The cost of providing safe and reliable drinking water in Thurston County is steadily increasing.
Inflation, construction costs, and necessary treatment costs to address PFAS “forever chemicals” and other water quality issues have all contributed to making a necessary utility more expensive.
“It's challenging where you have these costs rising, but you have folks that are on fixed incomes, that are older or disadvantaged communities or different populations, that they're not getting cost of living adjustments that are keeping up with this,” said Chris Pettit, a candidate for Thurston County PUD Commissioner District 3.
“So how do you put yourself in a position to be able to look at community assistance programs … as well as the cost of service? How do you use state funding, federal funding? How do you get to economies of scale, and consolidate systems together to get to a regional framework that allows you to spread those costs a little bit more evenly, which allows you to keep the cost of service down? How do you make things affordable?”
Pettit believes that his experience and knowledge of water systems makes him the right person to answer those questions.
Pettit has 20 years’ experience of work experience with water and environmental resources, including as a water and environmental attorney, as a consultant on national advisory committees and international projects, and as the director of Florida’s Office of Agricultural Water Policy.
He was named executive director of the Washington state Conservation Commission in early 2022, a position he held through March 2023.
He has since worked in the background on several political campaigns and policy development on the East Coast.
Pettit has gotten to know the sitting three Thurston PUD commissioners well over the years, he said. Current District 1 PUD Commissioner Chris Stearns encouraged Pettit to run for his seat when he retires at the end of his current term.
“I just decided it would be a viable path to hopefully serve the community and put the PUD in a position to be that value contributor in the coming years,” Pettit said.
Pettit hopes to use the position to elevate the conversation around the role water plays in building affordable housing.
“We say we're going to build 1,000 new homes, but you don't necessarily have the water resources, all you're doing is making land use decisions today that are setting up your water resource crises of tomorrow,” Pettit said.
For more information about Pettit’s campaign, visit https://www.chrisforpud.com/.
To learn more about Pettit’s opponent, Jeff Curry, visit thurstonchronicle.com.
