INDIANOLA — Since construction began on the White Horse development and golf course, groundwater concerns from Indianola’s residents have continued to flow unabated. Residents and groups, including the Friends of Kitsap Creek and the Suquamish Tribe, are still working with Kitsap County and developer Bob Screen in hopes of clearing up not only their water sources, but their anxieties as well.

On Jan. 27, members of Friends of Kitsap Creek submitted a list of concerns to Kitsap County’s Department of Community Development questioning its Nov. 30, 2006 groundwater report on the project. They received a response from the county Friday, and while they are pleased with some answers, they will continue to work to address other concerns.

“We’re definitely happy that the county recognized the developer threw in a curve ball by adding a new list of chemicals,” said Friends of Kitsap Creek member Joe Lubischer, referring to a new list of potential chemical compounds that could be used on the golf course. That list was added by White Horse officials to a group of established compounds which were already outlined in the groundwater plan.

The response sent to the Friends of Kitsap Creek by DCD Engineering Department manager Merita Trohimovich will call for White Horse to revise its list of chemicals so it is “acceptable using the Turf Management Plan rating method.” The additional compounds had concerned Friends of Kitsap Creek members, but Screen said the list was purely to show other compounds that could potentially be used on the course.

“Friends of Kitsap Creek have never been in touch with us,” Screen said. “We’re not following up with them. We have not been asked by the county to do that. The county is responding to Friends of Kitsap Creek.”

The Suquamish Tribe has also been concerned about the report, and was in contact with the county before the water monitoring program was implemented in July 2006, said tribal fisheries department biologist Alison O’Sullivan.

“I think we’ve been concerned about the golf course from its inception,” she said. “Golf courses are notorious for contamination, and we are concerned with regards to the (Grover’s Creek) hatchery.”

Tribal marine fish program manager and Indianola resident Jay Zischke said he and O’Sullivan are working on the worst case scenario of seeing trends of hazardous water coming from White Horse, but it’s too soon to tell if there has been any effect on tribal waterways from the development.

“We’re concerned about water quality, we have been all along,” Zischke said. It isn’t just White Horse that worries the tribe, he said, but any project or development has the potential to adversely affect its water quality.

Friends of Kitsap Creek will continue to work with the county to determine how to keep its water pristine, Lubischer said.

The next groundwater report is due out in the next month or so, Trohimovich said.

White Horse Phase I development includes 65 lots on 450 acres and an 18-hole golf course, the latter of which is expected to open in April.