Eastsound Stormwater treatment facility; This.... or THIS?

                                   What would you rather have:  This? 

                                                         ...or THIS?

(These two photos are an estimate - not claimed to be accurate, but more to give a scale and a visual idea of what will be lost, based on the latest 80% Grading Plan provided by Public Works. This will be corrected if the final plan shows something different, and as more accurate information comes in.) That's Eastsound Swale and the hill West of Lovers Lane behind the Swale trees.


The short version and upshot of this is that Public Works puts this project out for bid on May 31 - less than 5 days from now, with excavation beginning in September. We will be seeing and feeling the impact of that for long months before, and many years after, planting begins. We have little time to get the word out. If you use social networking, please link to this blog. Thanks so much.

We know and accept that storm water treatment is badly needed in order to protect Fishing Bay, and that it's mandated by the Growth Management Act for Urban Growth Areas. Where we take issue is in the engineering and heavy-handedness of approach.  Our concerns are grave. These changes will affect us long term.

The (very) long version follows. Some of what's in it will be repeated in shorter bits in the future. I tried to address the whole big picture. I hope you take the time to read it. It contains concerns and details some of the alternatives presented to Public Works by a handful of dedicated citizens who, at least, effected some small changes in the design plan. Thanks to them, a few more trees will (hopefully) stand. Thinking of what will happen to the rest... no words can come close to saying how this hurts my heart. 

Stormwater Treatment Facility Will Betray Public Trust and Good Faith

I posted this in the online papers last weekend. The important thing right now is the first two paragraphs of the editorial. The shopping center will visited in more detail at a later time.

This is the Stage On The Green as it is, with existing trees behind. Beautiful!

 

You’re at the Farmers Market or enjoying Music in the Park on a Sunday evening. When you look toward the Band Shell, what will you see? Blinding sun in your eyes and a backdrop denuded of trees except for a few – IF they survive the bulldozers and lack of supporting microclimate. This is what Public Works will do in autumn in order to give us badly needed treatment of some of Eastsound’s stormwater. Their rationale? “We had two workshops this winter; the public had plenty of time to comment.” Plenty of time? This thing has been in the works since the 1980s! Public Works got a grant for this project several years ago- the kind where PW spends money from the County coffers and receives payback when the project is completed.

The public was NOT included in this process until too late. In our UGA wind tunnel, the forested backdrop to the Stage on the Green, and tree habitat to many creatures, will be gone. The new plants will mostly be 2 – 4’ tall – in an area heavily infested by deer, and worse, rabbits. An aesthetics committee was asked to join in at the end, and they effected some better changes because they had ground experience with the existing wetland in question. In order to make this “constructed” wetland, most of the supporting habitat to the existing one will go.

Just think what we could’ve had if citizens had been included all along. Another part of this deal is a new shopping center just North of the Gym and West of the Post Office – directly abutting Eastsound Swale – a category 2 regulated wetland. The owner granted Public Works some easement. PW will pipe his stormwater to the facility, and he can build whatever he wants in an area in which he should not be allowed to build. More of our Critical Areas in town get trashed in the tradeoff.

People – get involved! We need to hold the County accountable for bad planning. They keep saying they want our involvement in planning; if we don’t get involved early and keep the pressure on, this is what we’ll keep getting. When the public sees this stormwater facility and what was sacrificed to have it, they will feel betrayed and outraged – again – with ample reason.

Sadie Bailey

Eastsound, WA

An Urban Growth Area Resident’s Perspective on Critical Areas

Here in Eastsound’s Urban Growth Area (UGA) –  at sea-level, only a mile wide,  and vulnerable to a wipeout in an overdue 9.0 magnitude earthquake – it seems our critical areas are viewed as disposable. Here we get maximum negative impacts from poorly planned development, and the brunt of stormwater dumping into non-flushing Fishing Bay. We’re forced to have sewers and chlorinated water, expected to withstand more retail buildings eating away at Eastsound Swale and other important wetlands while many existing buildings have vacancies. 

Forcing UGA residents to abandon septic drainfields and pay to install sewer systems hurts more than their already strained purse strings. It has killed countless cedars and other trees, many of which took hundreds of years to grow, because their water supply was cut off and diverted. This devastates tree-dependent wildlife.  In a wind-tunnel area already deforested due to over-development, we can’t afford to lose any more trees - natural wind breaks, shelter, habitat for countless avian species, stormwater root filtration systems. No artificial thing can replace a mature living tree.

Here In OUR urban growth back yard, we watch our beloved natural habitats get bulldozed and our village become the toilet and dumping ground of the island, so that the rest of the populace can have its open space. And at EPRC meetings, we suffer county officials saying that wetland buffers can be relaxed in a UGA, as we watch Eastsound Swale get chopped and destroyed some more. It’s maddening.

What recourse do we town-dwellers have? Most of us are low to moderate income people who must work. We can’t afford litigation and the constant vigilance it takes to protect our critical areas. Unless the rest of the citizens of Orcas begin to see a connection with us here, and realize this town is theirs too since they also use it, Eastsound critical habitats and their pristine beauty will be destroyed. The county has dragged its feet on the CAO for so long that the grant monies which could have helped us compile local Best Available Science (BAS) data are drying up, due to attacks on federal and state environmental protection laws and severe budget cuts.

All BAS and Best Management Practices Wetland documents I have read (and I have read many, since our apt. complex sits on part of the degraded Swale) say that mitigation and artificially engineered wetlands are the last resort and never achieve “no net loss.” Dr. Adamus said that until we can document local BAS, we should err on the side of doing nothing if there’s any chance of harm. Here’s an excerpt from his summary: “Many other data gaps exist that pertain to upland habitat, but these are perhaps the ones that most limit attempts to base land use decisions on sound science. Despite the above data gaps and information needs, the County’s efforts to protect habitats and biodiversity should not be put on hold until more information is available. State laws, the public trust, and popular concern for protecting natural resources from long-lasting harm dictate that both voluntary and regulatory efforts proceed with urgency using the best available science, whatever its current limitations.”

How can we convince people to want to do the right thing regarding critical areas? We can start by educating the public and landowners about the functions of wetlands and their necessary role in cleaning our critical aquifers and supporting biodiversity. The whole of Eastsound UGA is a critical aquifer wetland that has been so degraded it’s now unrecognizable from even 20 years ago. That doesn’t give anyone the “right” to continue to degrade it. Each development that chops up another piece of Eastsound Swale irrevocably destroys lives; tree, bird, fish, amphibian, flower, bat, bee. What I speak of is only a microcosm of the much greater interconnected big picture.

Can we find ways through education and incentives to protect Critical Areas? We must try, together. This is too important an issue to leave to a few county officials who think Eastsound is a write-off. I would argue that Eastsound is MOST important to protect. Many First Nations know, and knew, the interconnectedness of all things. When will we learn? Please submit your comments about the CAO and even if you’re not a “townie”, don’t forget us here in Eastsound, who are taking the hit for the rest of you.

 "I do not see a delegation for the Four Footed. I see no seat for the Eagles. We forget and we consider ourselves superior. But we are after all a mere part of Creation. And we must consider to understand where we are. And we stand somewhere between the mountain and the Ant. Somewhere and only there as part and parcel of the Creation." - Chief Oren Lyons, Oneida in an address to the Non-Governmental Organizations of the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, 1977