Today, as in years past, hundreds of Islanders will head to Point Robinson to enjoy one of the lowest tides of the year and to celebrate Puget Sound — a body of water that gives our Island shape, meaning and a sense of identity.

More than most islands in the region, Vashon is defined by the Sound. Many of us can’t get to work without boarding a boat and crossing this body of water. It limits us and yet also contains us. Puget Sound establishes our boundaries. And with such discrete boundaries, our lives are more intertwined, our community life more intense.

Unlike so much of Pugetopolis, where one suburb spills into another, we know where we begin and where we end.

It seems only fitting, then, to hold this yearly celebration of the Sound and the near-shore environment, a place that’s at once fragile and teeming with life. The Low Tide Celebration is a completely home-grown affair, little advertised beyond our shores. It’s our chance to get to know this place we call home a little better.

It also seems fitting that this celebration occur days after King County reached a milestone in its five-year effort to address failing septic systems along Vashon Island’s waterfront. The county has begged, cajoled, encouraged and, ultimately, demanded 263 property owners in its six marine recovery areas to either prove that their on-site septic systems work or begin the process of fixing them.

Some have cried foul, contending that the county has no business making such demands of property owners. Indeed, the chair of the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council’s land-use committee has talked about suing the county, charging that its requirement that waterfront property owners spend thousands of dollars to repair systems that are failing amounts to an unconstitutional “taking” of private property.

Such talk, we believe, shows how out of touch some leaders within the VMICC have become. Most Islanders care mightily about the Sound. Most aren’t terribly sympathetic to those who dump raw sewage into it.

And ultimately, nearly all of those 263 property owners figured out what they needed to do by the July 1 deadline and did it. Only a small handful has yet to step up, and of those, a smaller subset yet has not done so because they truly couldn’t afford it.

So head to the shoreline on this national holiday and celebrate not only the nation’s birth but also this regional jewel. It’s our backyard. How lucky we are to be encompassed by it.

Low Tide Celebration

The annual celebration will take place between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. at Point Robinson; the lowest tide, -3.1, is at 11:50 a.m. See page 9 for more information.