Airport Expansion Meeting Aftermath; Next Steps for Citizens

The Special Port Meeting to address Master Plan proposals of expansion of our airport was, in many ways, a disaster, to a populace that is getting sick and tired of being excluded and co-opted by officials when we have told them for many decades that we don't want unlimited growth at the expense of our rural character, culture, vision, lifestyle, and environment. People are finally questioning politicians' and developers' (who used to be called planners) reasoning, and the politicians and officials are scared of us and our (rightful) anger and frustration. They should be. They have harmed us and the lands and waters that sustain us, in so many egregious ways. They have eroded and betrayed Public Trust time and time again. What is needed is for we the people to step up, take the lead, and take back what is rightfully ours; care and stewardship of all we hold dear about this island we love - honoring the tranquil beauty and warm community that brought us here in the first place.

Mistakes were made by the Port commissioners present, the fire chief, who yelled at the people he turned away (as if it was their fault for coming!) and the Port manager. We would like to see all of those mistakes rectified. People came from off-island to attend this meeting; some from as far away as Portland and California. Some of them didn't even make it in the door. Elders were forced to stand. Some stood in the hall, defying the fire chief. Others stood in the scorching western sun on one of the hottest days of the year, so they could stand by the open door to the sweltering room (no fans) and hear. This is unacceptable. Some signed up to speak and were never heard, because the meeting agenda derailed and never got back on track.

This derailment was unfortunate for both the Port and for the 140 -150+ people who took time (and expense) from their days and their lives to attend this very important meeting. Notably absent due to the 3:30 time; working people and young people except for a few shining examples who attended and who not only asked incisive and intelligent questions, but who also offered solutions.

There was, at times, outright hostility toward some of the people in that room asking questions, sharing concerns, offering much cheaper and simpler solutions that would not require the Port taking opiate-laced candy from the Feds and State. The majority of people who came, seemed  to not want expansion, or simply wanted their questions answered clearly, so they could decide for themselves. Many questions were not answered, were skirted, ignored, or diverted to something else entirely.

Most people came away with a general sense of unease and betrayal, of feeling un-heard, disrespected, their ideas disregarded or even ridiculed. We were treated like mere civilians; children. We were told that this is not a democratic process; an insult to our intelligence, passion and caring for our island, and the way of life we cherish.

This can be rectified in only one way - a DO-OVER of that meeting; this time, a listening meeting. More below. Comment period to DOWL engineering on proposed alternatives so far, is due on the 3rd of this month. Alternative 1 - no build, is the only viable and feasible option at this time.

To their credit, the Port and Tony Simpson gave us an extended comment time and this meeting because many of us were concerned enough to demand it.  I think it surprised them that suddenly, someone wanted to know. It was the word "expansion" that caught our attention - and the map drawings put out in June.

We should demand more from the Port, since they grievously fell short of their obligation as a Public entity. When the Port manager has already made the decision on which plan is the "preferred" plan, the Public process is broken. This needs rectification, and listening to us with intent to seriously consider other options would go a long way toward that.

The Port and Port manager are not the enemy - although they are acting like we are the enemy. What we want and desire is for real dialogue and listening to our concerns and desires, and consideration of our ideas and solutions -  that maybe there is a win-win for them and for us if we all work together.

Tony Simpson says he would meet with us and would listen. I don't want to believe that these people are our enemy - but we still need to hold them accountable and call out what parts of their story about what they need to do to comply, may not be entirely true or as inflexible as they believe. And more; we are not going to believe their scare tactics to make us think this expansion has to be a "done deal." It doesn't. There are options not being presented, so we will present them and even pursue them if the Port won't. One thing's sure; we need to be a presence with the Port from now on, and go to their meetings and involve ourselves with this process; or we'll get what we don't want.


Our goals for the meeting and after, as concerns the Expansion are:
1) listen to everyone's best thoughts about how to go forward effectively.
2) Inspire a groundswell of actions that might include: letters to the Port stating our dissatisfaction and insistence on a "do-over" meeting; task groups or people to take on some of the daunting and time-consuming research, letters to other entities such as DOE, the Friends, etc;
3) Make our comments to DOWL; keep a dated copy for our records - deadline Friday. Ask for another comment period extension to September in our comments. The Port and DOWL are moving ahead with the process; they should be taking and weighing comments throughout their entire master plan process.
orcasmasterplan@dowl.com
include in the cc:
council@sanjuanco.com, randy gaylord, kevin ranker, maria cantwell, patty murray, rick larsen, etc
4) Gather more volunteers who are willing to take the above-mentioned actions and help us be as effective and cohesive as we can, while looking for common ground. We need more people willing to take on tasks and commit to following through with them, if we are to succeed. Even one task helps tremendously. We're early enough in this process that we can make a difference. Let's Make It So.

We're having a public, citizen-led and driven meeting tonight; there will be a follow-up post about the outcome. We'll be listing actions people can take and providing links to make it as easy as possible.
We are calling ourselves Orcas Citizens' Forum - this is all inclusive, where we are all equals. We expect moles and sabateurs and maybe even some attackers, but we have nothing to hide; they do!

mail chimp sign up link for Orcas Citizens' Forum -Airport Expansion:
http://eepurl.com/dCvUwD

Questions, Musings, Observations

Written in January, 2014

I went to a celebration for Martin Luther King last night. This is not about that. But I can't help but think of a quote that Sharon Abreu quoted (paraphrased): "Cynicism is the intellectual face of despair." Yup. Count me among the despairing when it comes to the County, with its inner workings of... is it corruption? Greed? in Community Development and (not) Planning, Council, and Public works.

Questions Un-answered:

 Why is commercial development still being allowed in Eastsound, when there are empty commercial spaces all throughout Eastsound?  Why are more trees getting cut? Why is there allowance for a 40 unit building on a quarter acre of property in Eastsound Basin? Why are only vacay rentals and air b &b's and luxury condos being built while homelessness is continually on the rise - who are they for?


Do the residents of Eastsound UGA know what's coming down the pike?

What is Public Works going to do with the remaining parcel across the trail from the future Eastsound Market Place or whateveritz going to be? Scary to think of the possibilities, since, with 9 engineers, their penchant for spending grant monies by making up things to do is stupendous. As are the damages when their projects don't get maintained.


Observations of the world around us (through a glass, darkly):

I used to see bats all the time in summer behind where I live. I haven't seen a bat - not one - for at least two years. Where did the bats go? What killed or repelled them? Ditto with Swallows. They used to fly around here; now NONE. Since the Lavender Hollow and the Christian School are weed -whacking all the tall grasses, not ONE red wing blackbird do I see or hear anymore. In our quest for "tidiness" we are killing off and repelling the beneficial birds and wildlife.

The Mount Property Constructed Wetland has all the SAME noxious weeds that was the justification for removing 260 10-yard ump trucks full of hydric soil - effectively ruining the wetland (part of Eastsound Swale - no matter what the "experts" tell you that it's not. It is. Or was. until they removed the hydric soil and now it can't recover.)

 Eastsound and surround are in the Pacific Flyway migratory bird route. The San Juans are in that flyway. Light pollution is one of the biggest causes of bird deaths. The birds get confused and fly in circles in the light beams - and die of exhaustion. Now, they want streetlights in Eastsound Village and the new lights are blinding LED. Light pollution is already a serious problem in Eastsound; hence contributing to bird deaths. The birds get confused, think it's daytime, become diurnal. They're easy meals for predators - cats, owls, etc.

Musings (Not A-musing)

Stormwater control - GIANT FAIL. Eastsound is flooding. The September floods never should have happened. Public Works had not cleaned out the storm drains in YEARS. There's more.  Public Works's solution to stormwater? Keep cutting down wetland trees. Put roads through wetlands; then never clean debris or silt out of the culverts. That's how most of the trees in Eastsound Swale by Enchanted Road got killed - drowned. Haul away all hydric soil so a natural wetland can't recover. Kill off beneficial amphibian populations. DO NOTHING to address stormwater running down from the tops of hills two miles away that all roar into Eastsound Basin through the ditches so deep that your car is automatically totalled if you happen to be unlucky enough to get your car in one. Putting in landscape designs destined to fail and then wiggle out of maintaining them, or anything else they engineer or build? (Actually, the workers do fix the potholes with some regularity.) A road is planned to go through the community garden in the heart of town. That is the short list.

There's talk of putting the road through and connecting Orion Lane with A Street.  Right next to a SCHOOL and apartment complex where kids play in the street - there's no place else to play. Or they want to put A Street or Fern Street through Eastsound Swale to Lovers Lane. All of these ideas are disastrous for Eastsound Swale and any trees in the way of their idea of "progress."

One of the last horrifying things I witnessed/ overheard/observed at an "open house" last October;
the minions of Eastsound Sewer. The three men were: Greg Ayers (who thankfully was NOT elected as a County Councilor), Paul Kamin (head of Eastsound Water Users), and Dan Vekved - engineer at Public Works. They were all jubilantly entertaining the notion of joining forces into a Utility District. Can you say Monopoly and Total Control of the populace? The poorest people would pay the money to support the lifestyles of the rich! I swear they were licking their licivious craven lips - No, No, NO!


Possible Ways to Go:

 What Public Works could do - if coerced by public opinion - is to fire 6 engineers at least - and hire more laborers to keep up with their Granted Projects. Instead, what gets bankrupted is Eastsound Swale, Fishing Bay, and President's Channel - not to mention narrow land bridge between the two parts of the Salish Sea. Hiring more regular workers would insure success of more of their projects. Having less "specialized "engineers means each engineer left would actually need to be a generalist and study details pertaining to a project - ie educated.


"Cynicism is the intellectual face of despair." Somebody, please help me. I have tried and tried. I can't get through to the county. I feel so heartbroken and negative, I  can't get through to the people to incite them to ACT on their own behalf and on behalf of the environment before it's too late. It probably is too late, but something (stubbornness? denial? "optimism?") compels me to keep trying, keep acting. If I let myself feel the despair on this micro-cosmic level,  at what a hash we've made of our lovely wetland basin, I won't have a way left to even get out of bed. Most days, thinking about all of this makes me want to cry. And cry. And cry. I write instead; about swallows, bats, destructive rabbits. I need to offer some solutions to the People. ATM i have none, except to advise people to get educated and let your county officials know what you think and feel about the plan to sacrifice Eastsound for the gain of a few realtors, developers, and mercenaries.

Stormwater is the Issue that Needs Addressing

As more and more trees are removed in Eastsound Swale and all over the island, we are literally missing the forest for the trees. Eastsound Swale sits in a low valley surrounded by hills and rises. All water flows downhill. As more and more trees get bulldozed to make new developments and commercial buildings, there is less windbreak and tree root filtration. This causes twofold problems: flooding in the rainy season and drying out in our dryland summers. When you remove tree shade and roots, you remove the cooling shade for amphibians and fish. You remove the cooling effect and shade which keeps the soil more moistened. You remove habitat for migratory songbirds, amphibians, bats, and other beneficials.

The trees in Eastsound Swale are drowning, due to all this excess water roaring down the hills in winter, eroding silt into the wetland ecosystem, thus clogging Enchanted Forest Road culverts with silt and not letting the water drain through to the other side of the road. There is permanent ponding on one side of the road and drought on the other. More and more runoff and eroded silt is gushing into the Swale and clogging what used to be a moving seasonal waterway. More and more trees are dying. More and more road pollution runoff pollutes our critical aquifer and drinking water. Fallen trees and debris are not removed and thus, more blockages. While the Swale drowns, nothing is being done to address the stormwater problem. Permits are being given out like Get- out-of-Jail-Free cards in a crazy out-of-control monopoly game of greed. A few for-profit developers get richer while the rest of us lose our natural diversity and health of our waters - OUR riches.

For those of us for whom Eastsound is not just a Place to Shop, but Home, this is frustrating and sad - and maddening to watch the greed and blindness or worse, lack of care. It's take and take, and the rest of us are holding the garbage bag. We Chicken Little environmentalists really do feel that the sky - and a whole lot of other human debris - is falling - literally into Eastsound Swale and from there, spilling out into Fishing Bay and President's Channel.

The stormwater issue is the elephant in the living room and we need to take off our blindfolds and face the whole of the beast. An moratorium on tree cutting in Eastsound (without a permit and a proof of a darn good reason to cut) and outward for at least a mile in any direction would be a first step in the right direction. That, and abandoning the idea of incorporating Eastsound SubArea Plan into the county's Unified Development Codes.

Who is Trojan Heron?

I found out. He is Ed Kilduff,  trained wetlands "expert." He won't reveal his real name or affiliations. Instead, said person hangs posters on community bulletin boards in Eastsound, and maybe on other islands in the San Juans. What are the connecting affiliations, once you start reading the blog, watching the youtube videos, and reading the posters accusing Friends of the San Juans and environmentalists in general, of attacking the very fiber of our community? Is Trojan Heron another deep- pocket or one of their (often unwitting) tools,  seeing to it that the people are duped, misled and confused, and incited into an angry irrational froth? Or is Trojan Heron a concerned citizen just trying to do the right thing? Who knows? The blog, from what I've read, is divisive. In using spin and truth-bending, it is doing the very thing it accuses the accused of doing.

 In connecting the dots for Trojan Heron's possible affiliations, they lead indirectly and directly to CAPR (with several chapters in Ca. and 12 in Wa), and , Resources Coalition, Olympic Stewardship Foundation, Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners,  Freedom Foundation, Eagle Forum, Heritage Foundation,  Freedom Works, Heartland Institute,  American Crossroads, Koch Brothers, Bradley Foundation, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and many more private foundations and corporations and CEOs. Most of the big guns that could be affiliates, or influences on Trojan Heron, probably have some ties to, or have bought votes and membership in ALEC. (American Legislative Exchange Council).

Don't know what ALEC is? Learning about ALEC might be one of the most important things you can learn. The corporations and 1%ers belonging to ALEC are the true puppetmasters, and are buying votes (and legislators) and writing the laws the legislators pass;  laws that attack the environment, deny climate change, dissolve public education funding and privatize schools, eliminate social programs, medicare, health care, unions, womens' rights, reproductive rights, civil rights, whistle-blowing rights,ability to assemble in peaceful protest, ad nauseum.

The goal of ALEC's puppetmasters? More land grab and exploitation of resources and Critical Areas for "free enterprise." For them. Meanwhile, tactics of front groups divert our attention while the chain saws rip and more gang-bangers develop and destroy our forests, oceans, and Critical Areas. Maximum development in throwaway UGAs prevails over stewardship and sustainable long-term planning to protect our Critical Areas.

If Trojan Heron cares about community as he states, wouldn't he be asking some profound questions about Critical Areas, and making some observations based on that caring, leading to heartfelt dialogue and sincere attempts to join with environmentalists in educating people to want to protect critical areas because it's good for their grandchildren to do so? Because intact critical areas are a wealth you can't buy? Because if we knew and understood what they are and what they do, and wanted to, we wouldn't need laws that no one obeys or enforces anyway? And yes, something does need to be done about repeat violators who know exactly what they're doing, and get a hand slap from the corrupt CD&P's Rene Beliveau, while poorer landowners are put through the wringer.

When the accusers twist and turn facts into arguments "proving" that environmentalists and CD&P (Shireene Hale specifically), County Council, Dept. of Ecology and any other group trying to protect Critical Areas, are the villains driving the wedge and inciting us against each other, how is that helping to bring our community together?

I have watched 30 years of many of the same old players (and some new ones) stalling, and stopping outright, any lasting or effective protections of our Critical Areas while certain land-grabbers trade their revolving-door chameleon-like LLCs and continue degrading wetlands and shoreline habitat with large scale for-profit  developments.

Our hearts are sore at this destruction, whether we know it or not. We know deep down that we are destroying ourselves by destroying the earth, and the closer to home it is, the more it affects us - consciously or unconsciously. Not just our physical selves, but the very best in ourselves. The Earth's body is as ours. When we poison her waters, we poison our bodies and brains. We try to numb our heartbreak and outrage with misdirected anger or palliatives. But we have to face the truth of this heartbreak and mind-fuck if we are going to get on with creating a better, more just world for all.

No matter what Trojan Heron or his people say, using spin-doctoring front group tactics to incite the populace against environmentalists - a tactic used by "free enterprise" rapists, pillagers, and land-grabbers ever since humanity began - is a grave and unjust error. It's time to start de-constructing and exposing the myths and erroneous thinking on all sides, and come together, ready to listen to each other and work for the common good of generations to come who will inherit the earth, and who might like to have clean drinking water and forests and beneficial creatures and who might want a different world than the one we've created so far.

Eastsound Swale is Dying

Dear Citizens;

Eastsound Swale, our beloved wetland, is dying. The trees are drowning. We need the trees! They are our filters, our lungs.

 The realtors, developers, planners, and county officials are probably relieved to have gotten away with the tree genocide and land grab glut, and have almost completed the destruction. How do they feel, selling the dream while in reality, trampling the land and its inhabitants, fouling our waters?

Spin doctors are spinning lies and fear tactics - tripe such as this> " you won't be able to have a garden or even dig a hole with the new CAO regulations." Lies are being propogated in epidemic fashion, a cancer polluting the minds of the gullible and uneducated. The liars are saying that Eastsound Swale is man made. Hogwash! Don't believe them. They're all about the money and profit. They'll do anything to sell us down the river including poison us all and cut all of our trees. After all, who can afford to live in Eastsound? Just us poor and middle class folk. We're in the way anyway. Eastsound Village Proper used to be a community - now it is a Business District. Nobody but a few people actually LIVE there.

The County and Planning Dept. have thrown Eastsound and its inhabitants (human and non human) under the bus. Our own Eastsound Planning and Review Committee (EPRC) has thrown us under the bus. What a selfish short-sighted lot are these few filthy rich and greedy spin doctors! Gangsters one and all. **
**a clarification: i'm not saying that EPRC or the County or CD&P are gangsters - or filthy rich and greedy. I am saying that there are a few who are, and they generate lies and spin, sometimes through a few individuals in well positioned places. What I'm also saying is that excessive wealth and greed are a bad combination which produce gangster mentality and control, since the bottom line is profit at all cost. What I do notice about the EPRC is that there is not even ONE conservationist or environmentalist on the EPRC - not for a long time. Those who have tried to join have either not been appointed, or have given up early when they realized what was going on within the EPRC. But I sort of digress.

Even the citizens of Orcas have thrown us under the bus. Any and all of them could have come to bat for the Critical Areas in Eastsound. Where are they when we need them? Do any of them put themselves in our shoes? Try to imagine how it'd feel if it were them in our predicament?

In the Growth Management Act, because Eastound was designated an "urban growth area," over 50% of the total population must live in Eastsound, by mandate. Our commissioners of the past sold us down the river and made us into an Urban Growth Area. Up all the way through 2011,  we had a chance to get out of this - something our bureaucrats wanted us not to know - and we didn't. So we lost the chance for any flexibility in that.

Now there is a plan afoot to incorporate the Eastsound SubArea Plan (the one thing that supposedly protects Eastsound Swale, which the County continues to ignore anyway!) into the County Unified Development Codes. This effectively, once and for all, removes any power of protection from the citizenry. The most rapacious and greedy developers have the most holdings here in our UGA, and have built so many illegal and exploitative developments in the past 20+ years it's sickening.

 Not ONCE did the County recognize or honor our SubArea Plan or the Conservancy Overlay District (16.55.250) when it really would have counted to protect the Swale, nor did they use the Conservancy Overlay District to safeguard trees in Eastsound Swale slated for demolition - wetland trees. Instead, they passed every single permit - legal or not!

The first offenders to radically change Eastsound Swale for the worse were the Outlook Inn owners. The Inn sits at the South end of the Swale creek. The inn expansion diverted the natural (NOT man made) creek, cut many trees to make parking lots and roads. Water was piped, diverted. What was built to supposedly handle their stormwater were two ugly scummy algae-covered, mosquito-infested eyesore "ponds." The "treated" stormwater then dumps into non-flushing Fishing Bay, likely poisoning it and any fish left in there. The airport destroyed the North end of the Swale (along with the Ditch). That took out a category 1 peat bog swamp; irreplaceable.

Even today, dirty deals are being made by the same few players; LLC's are trading land back and forth, probably to avoid taxes and capital gains taxes. Then they develop the hell out of them and nobody is watching or if they are, they're too confused by the shell game. All of these exploited lands WERE the Swale, ARE still the Swale, no matter how unrecognizable or degraded. Local wetland "delineations" - hired out by charlatans who can pay enough to have anyone to say what they want them to say - never take into account the whole big picture of connectivity and interconnected wetlands How can something be declared "part of Eastsound Swale" in a wetland report and at the same time be downgraded and considered "not a part?" You tell me! So... the Swale gets chopped into little bitty pieces, then downgraded to "low value" wetlands and razed, raped, gutted, drained, filled, graded, plugged.   

The Planners and Council are planning a whopping 6 years out - as if that is "long range planning" - while certain realtors and permittors who have conflicts- of-interest while "serving" on the planning commission and EPRC, continue to "sell the dream" and serve the town folks the Nightmare - and allow decimation of what few trees are left in town. They murder our songbirds, bats, frogs, salamanders, etc and destroy all their habitat. How many ways can you say "corrupt?"

Meanwhile, Eastsound gets colder and even more intensely windy, because there are no windbreak trees left. More get cut every day it seems. Stormwater rushes into the Swale at an alarming rate. Roads cut across it, damming the seasonal creek the First Nations used to use as a navigable waterway, and choking off its flow.

Eastsound Swale used to be a dark, dank, creepy, wild, mysterious, thick wooded area; it was huge, and wide and thick, and choked with willows, crabapples, alders, and old fruit trees from earlier farming days in the 1800s. The Swale was full of songbirds, muskrats, bats, and amphibians galore, including salamanders and newts. It was an oozing, croaking, stinking, singing place. It was cool and sheltering in summer, warm and protecting in winter. The creek was full in winter and then dried up a bit in summer. It always flowed. The trees filtered the water and allowed it to meander, not gush or pond. Now it is all a dead flood zone with a few trees here and there, all of them drowning. Invasives and noxious weeds have been introduced by chopping trees and degrading the buffer edges over and over and over again.

Stormwater from all the hills surrounding our Critical Aquifer basin rushes down in eroding rivulets, and dumps into the Swale, which was never meant to hold it all. Roads cut across it like handcuffs, like straitjackets, damming (damning) seasonal creek into permanent dead zone pools. Natural wetlands are never meant to be "stormwater treatment facilities." Stormwater is killing our Swale. Tree cutting is killing our Swale. Development is killing our Swale. Enchanted Forest Road is killing our Swale. Short sighted greed, stupidity, and corruption are killing our Swale. Apathy is killing our Swale.

Who will speak up for it before it is too late? Who will help plant trees to reforest it? Does anyone care anymore enough to get up off their behinds and DO something? If so, please get in touch - Let's do something! Let's put our heads and hearts together and stop the exploitative carnage. I have some ideas; I'll bet you have some, too. I've been gathering information for a long time. Some of it can help us legally. We have standing. I've also gathered some information on reforestation and restoration of wetlands. If the county won't do something, then it's up to the citizenry to take matters into its own hands. We need citizen watchdogs. I have a whole outline in place for a citizen watchdog group. I can't do this alone. Please come forward and help the trees. Help the beings who can't speak for themselves. Please.

Sincerely,
the Lorax

Who Will Speak

Who will speak on behalf of trees

to stay saw’s bite, blade’s slash and sting?

Can the heart hold what the eye sees?

Home to eagles, quetzals, chickadees

chattering to down-fuzzed nestlings –

Who will speak on behalf of trees?

Gifts of plums and almonds, reddened leaves

melting into soil with winter’s wetting –

Can the heart hold what the eye sees?

Sheltering under lush green canopies –

do we thank the Amazon for rain it brings?

Who will speak on behalf of trees?

Frost-kissed leaf skeleton filagrees,

arboreal trilling, squawking, croaking, singing-

Can the heart hold what the eye sees?

Bare-boned stark windswept effigies,

spring blossomed crowns, bee- beckoning;

who will speak on behalf of trees?

Can the heart hold what the eye sees?                  2011

                                                           

It sucks being a canary -- Skip if you can't handle anger and lengthy rants

I haven't written since August, because... what can I possibly say that isn't going to end up a rant or a wail? As I watch the Critical Areas in Eastsound be bulldozed, raped, logged, paved, destroyed - illegally and legally, with no repercussions for the violators, I can feel the pain of it in my own feminine body. It hurts more than I can say, and believe me, I've tried to express it more articulately than the hash I'm making of it right now. I can feel the earth's agony. Can't you? Maybe that sounds melodramatic but I no longer care how it sounds. It is so beautiful; all we've been given - and we throw it away. All we've been born into, been priviliged to have in our lives; don't our kids deserve at least as well? Don't they deserve to know the peace and beauty we have known? Don't they deserve our protection and stewardship of the lands we borrow from this Earth? Isn't the real wealth in our supporting lands, waters, and the community that comes together to honor and protect them?

I have wondered what my purpose is in writing these blogs. Who reads them? Who are they for? What do they really offer? Is it just mental masturbation, a journal written in the dark inside a crumbling coal mine as the oxygen runs out? How can I "just think positive," and then what - forget about it all and disassociate? Who even wants to know or ponder what we're doing to the planet, since pondering it hurts too much? Who is actually looking for being part of solutions, rather than just complaining, and who is willing to take the time to co-create them, implement them, and stand firm and hold steady against those who would destroy everything, and not give up or give in? Who in town (mostly moderate to low income people) even has the time or energy to do anything but survive and hope they can feed their kids from paycheck to paycheck?

I've wondered how to get people interested in sitting through arduously boring meetings that effect nothing, no matter how many times we tell the engineers and governmental officials that we don't want the trees cut, and have our offerings of other less hostile solutions for the land rejected in patronizing smiles. And what does "educating" people mean? It seems twofold. We have to be mindful of what is happening around us, and acknowledge the consequences of our thoughts, habits, and actions; ie our part in it. And if we then want to change those things to do least harm, we have to find ways to step outside the paradigm of this dysfunctional matrix and create something from the best of every one of us, and we have to want it really badly - so badly that we're willing to stop blaming our differences and learn to co-create and see them as a strength and an opportunity to have more creative ideas than if we were all alike. Easy to say, harder to do.

Then there's the whole white-male cultural rules: Men aren't supposed to be sad or feel the feminine inside them. (ie "no sissies."). Women aren't supposed to be angry ("bitches.") Everyone should just think positive and read a new self-help book, take more prozac, and go to a therapist or the latest motivational speaker or new age guru. Heh.

Even while understanding the historical moment we're in right now - the working class becoming a serf population, the hold the powerful few have on us all - I am frustrated by the lack of involvement locally. What will it take for Eastsound residents to be engaged with their own homeland? I am also disheartened that those outside of town with more acreage, time, and money - whose lands our sacrificial-lamb-the-Urban-Growth-Area, protect, turn away from our difficulties here. How can they look away? How can they not claim their connection with us and this land and these waters - in the heart, the hub, the most vulnerable geographic and geologic place in the island? In all the ferry islands, probably, due to our sea level location and narrow bridge of land which gets hammered by all the wind we get here, Eastsound is the most vulnerable.

Then there's the social ramifications: I am livid when someone moves to a place like Madrona Point and "loves" Madrona trees, then cuts down a bunch of them to build their "dream cottage" and complains about our dances at Oddfellows, the one joy many of us low-lifer blue collar workers have, while saws roar and trees fall around us. How can they call the cops on a fraternal organization that raises money for kids' scholarships and does all manner of good deeds for the community through rental of their hall for social events; here long before these new breeds who want closed gated communities for the rich with multiple homes, most not even willing to spend a winter here with just the locals? Who ARE these people?

Soon Eastsound area will feel the long-term effects of the latest onslaught by Public Works which dovetails nicely with their new excessively-monied grant program called "roadside hazard mitigation project."(more about that in another posting).

My frustration with Public Works is that they plan, engineer, seem sincere and probably are, but go about it backwards. First they apply and get the grant money. Then they spend some (plenty!) of that money planning and engineering. Then they have open houses, which are not really open houses, since they're "telling" us what they are going to do. It's frustrating to watch the engineers plan and then consistently run out of money for monitoring and maintenance; the very things that would make the new "constructions" work. The job goes to the lowest bidder; it has to by law. Never mind if they are skilled or ethically qualified to do the best job they can do. It's all about the dollars. There are too few Public Works "blue collar" crew to do the work of the white collar experts! Now, how is that?

And very soon Mount Baker Road, home of some longtime island families and friends, home to my own new garden (which will be 10 degrees colder when those trees are lost), and many other life-forms that can't speak up at "public" meetings and who depend on tree cover, will be irrevocably compromised in terrain where there are precious few trees left, and any new trees will have a terrible time growing, due to the almost continual buffeting winds and our new rabbit problem - people releasing domestic rabbits into "the wild" (illegal and destructive beyond belief).

In the vicinity of my new garden, built last spring/summer I have already seen cedar waxwings, anna's and rufous hummingbirds, goldfinches, western tanagers, garter snakes, tree frogs, all kinds and sizes of hawks, eagles, ospreys, pileated and downy woodpeckers, and much much more. I have heard several kinds of owls at night. Where will these creatures live without their homeland trees? What will hold stormwater and polluted road runoff from flooding in the lowlands, if not tree roots?

The Mount Baker Road Widening Project is at best, unnecessary. At worst, it's a long-term tragedy that will do immeasurable harm. Why is this being done? Supposedly, for safety and visibility on "dangerous" Mount Baker Road, which runs through a large category 1 and 2 wetland. Having lived here for 30 years, I can tell you that Mount Baker Road was a lot safer before Public Works's last project, the "truck bypass route" which many trucks don't use anyway. They made two promontory-type corners and don't have the manpower to maintain them so the visibility is terrible. There have been more serious accidents and fatalities, not less. The so-called trail is in a wetland and underwater most of the year; some parts all year long so people have to walk out in the shoulder-less roadway. Couldn't they have fixed the trail with a berm and flow pipes for a whole lot less money and carnage?

How does making this road into a highway where people can now do 70mph instead of 50, safer? Public Works refuses to acknowledge the part that excessive speeding, alcohol and drug impairment, and inappropriate cell phone use are the top contributors to accidents and fatalities. Their solution? Get state and EPA grants and keep the engineers employed and happy. SO... for the benefit of the few, the many must suffer. Same old tired song and I'm sick of hearing this discordant music. I'm mad and sad as hell.

Most of the trees on the North side of Mount Baker Road from Terrill Beach Road to Buck Park will be cut. The rest may not stand, depending on the treatment of the land by heavy equipment. The smaller trees protect the larger ones, as we can see by the sad example of the Mount Property Constructed Wetland Project, where the tall pines are drowning and being pushed over by the strong winds that prevail in Eastsound.

What do we stand to lose with each mature or maturing tree cut? How much water filtration do we lose? How many bird's nests? Tree frogs? Salamanders? Raptors? Bats? Beneficial insects? How much shade and shelter and windbreak do we lose? How much life does one tree support? Who speaks for that life, for all those lives? Are any planners and engineers asking these questions and will they take time from their desks and go out in the field, as gardeners do, and observe the life around them, over seasons? Over years?

What can you really say? How much broken-heartedness can a person take? How can that be used to make the world a better place; not by force but by gentleness? How can one turn fierce anger into an ally that will stand up and say "NO MORE CARNAGE?" I am now so cynical that I can understand why people just give up and decide to be selfish and "me" oriented. Bah. May as well just do art and garden and try to enjoy the few years or days we have left. But thoughts haunt: who will speak for the trees? For the next seven generations of humankind? For our great nieces or children or grandchildren?

If this blog had followers in numbers like facebook pages, then maybe some people would offer up solutions, ideas, prayers - because we need every one of us to stop going in this planet-destroying direction we are heading. Meanwhile, I hope we all take seconds and moments, as often as we can, make it our meditation and mindfulness practice to appreciate and give thanks for what is here and give that forth to the land, the waters, and their marvelous resident and migratory creatures. This earth needs to feel our love and thanks, now more than ever.

Questions handed in to Public Works on Feb. 15, 2011 re: Mount Property Stormwater Facility

Here are a bunch of questions written to PW on February 15, 2011 and handed in at a Stormwater Aesthetics meeting to their representative engineer, Shannon Wilbur.
How many of these questions were addressed by Public Works? It would be good to compile follow-through documentation on this.

“Thousand Questions” re: Mount Property Stormwater Treatment Facility

1) If, according to BAS, wetlands shouldn’t be used for stormwater treatment facilities if there’s any chance of negatively impacting groundwater in sensitive aquifers, how does this plan prevent groundwater or potable water pollution?

2) If this wetland, as-is, can handle normal seasonal runoff (and we’ve had one of the wettest winters on record), isn’t there a way to divert stormwater runoff someplace near the wetlland (ie into a culvert or a pond off-site) that could be slowly absorbed back into the ground rather than into Fishing Bay, and leave the wetland as-is except for canary grass removal and a little gentle grading and splitting of flow? (Michael B’s idea from what he observed while walking the wetland several times.)

3) Regarding future piping from Fern Street and any other piping to this facility being planned: everything I’ve read so far says that stormwater should be diverted away from wetlands, not into them. Would you please point me to science that shares the opposite view?

4) When planning this stormwater treatment facility, how much was future buildout considered? If this connects to future projects, have those been mapped out? What are the piping and other treatment facilities that will tie into this? How can we see those in connection and relation to this first step?

5) How will this facility affect abutting wetlands? What will happen to them as they get filled and more impervious surfaces put into them, more alluvial soils displaced, and more chopping up of the Eastsound Swale into smaller and smaller separated pieces?

6) Is anything at all being done to protect the rest of Eastsound Swale from having to take stormwater and thus we’d lose more tree habitat? (Most of the willows were unfortunately already cut down along lovers land and Enchanted Forest Road.)

7) Since science seems to point to natural functioning wetlands being always preferable over engineered wetlands, I’m wondering how we got to this plan. Is it just that we had no other choice, based on science and geography?

8) Mindy seemed to think that Amanda drew up an alternate plan that was less radical than this one and more natural than engineered. Is that plan available for public perusal?

9) Wetlands, even drained and filled, can be restored if the alluvial soils are left intact. (EPA). What will happen to the alluvial soil? If removed, why, and why not returned to the site? There are some grants for restoration. Should we explore that angle for the rest of the impacted parts of the Swale?

10) Many of the BAS documents on stormwater and wetlands that I read said that detention and retention ponds are being over-used and that the latest BAS studies show that they are doing more harm to wetlands than good, and that ponds can ruin a wetland's function within 20 years due to various factors. Was this considered in the engineering? If there is science disproving this, please point me to those documents, because I’m not finding them.

11) Not one engineered wetland I’ve seen (in the many docs I studied) showed an engineered wetland planted with trees. They all seem to be grassland and marshland. Why is it that these are chosen over tree filtration systems. Can’t trees be planted that would thrive in wet conditions and grow, like the island willows we once had everywhere and have all been destroyed for development? If trees keep wetland life warmer in winter and cooler in summer due to shading and protection, this destroys the ecological balance of that area.

12) I read in the scientific documents that if a potential site’s climate is dry in summer for more than two months, (as the San Juans are), a pond system wetland is not a good pick because the ponds should not be allowed to dry out and the chance of pollutant spread was greater if heavy rains followed a dry summer. Was this considered? How will that be handled? What will be done to provide shade and organic refuse for the ponds, since tree cover will no longer shade the water?

13) making new “edges” (from cutting down trees and excavation) encourages noxious weed proliferation near and into the wetlands (i.e. hawthorn trees replace more desirable willows, blackberries replace nootka rose). Herbaceous perennials and annuals are taken over by invasive plants such as canary reed grass. How will the existing reed canary grass problem be addressed? Blackberry? Edge buffers for the new edges created? Have you considered the rabbit problem in Eastsound?

14) My readings of wetland science suggest that sun, although it can be good for “cleaning” ponds (although I doubt it gets hot enough here), changes the temperature, and that many fish and amphibians are negatively impacted (fatally) by temperature changes of even a few degrees. We lost most of our salamander and frog population due to Enchanted Forest Road being put on top of the swale right over their breeding grounds. What is being done by the County and Public Works to protect the rest of what’s left, and are you working with the Army Corps of Engineers, state DOE, fish and wildlife, and the EPA to protect these critical areas aquifers?

15) Who will maintain the wetland facility after major soil disturbance? Who will regularly maintain and weed-out the inevitable thistle, teasel, and other noxious weeds that follow? Based on the county’s maintenance of other projects due to personnel shortages, I do not feel hopeful that this facility will be properly maintained and monitored.

16) What will major tree removal do to songbird, bat, and amphibian insect catchers in terms of foraging, mating, and breeding sites, which we’re already losing fast or have lost within the UGA? Can we afford to lose any more of their habitat?

17) Since all that I have read says that tree roots have great filtering capabilities, especially conifers, are there any examples of “treed” natural wetlands used as stormwater treatment facilities? If so, would you direct me to links or documents?

18) What can possibly replace trees, aesthetically, for the kind of height and natural backdrop that we’re used to seeing behind the band shell? The band shell was built to be part of an environment which included trees for backdrop. Loss of trees will destroy the scale and scope of the design. Can we plant pines or some other type of small or narrow conifers along the Eastern edge of the wetland to shield our view and help keep late afternoon sun out of our eyes when viewing concerts? (the trees did this for us late afternoon and early evening)

19) What will be done to keep people from walking all over the wetland area if the wetland dries up in summer, which seems probable?

20) What will keep the ponds from becoming mosquito breeding grounds and who will maintain weeds around them? Will the ponds contain aquatic plants?

21) If soil is being excavated out two feet deep or more, aren’t we infiltrating the groundwater and aquifer supply?

22) What is the life (in years) of this kind of facility before it needs to be “re-engineered?”

23) Is a 60 foot long, ten foot wide concrete ramp really necessary to clean the north pond? Can the pond be moved East to mitigate that, or can some temporary metal mesh type material be used to roll out and put down atop a much more minimal concrete structure (perhaps even mostly underwater) when the excavator or backhoe needs to clean the pond, and then rolled back up?

24) How often will the pond need to be cleaned?

25) Has anyone heard of an exciting new thing in possible pollutant cleaning of wetlands – mycology? There has been good success with mycology in forest restoration. Results have been promising in studying mushrooms’ ability to absorb and “eat” pollutants and when tested, the mushrooms are shown to be “clean.” Can we explore this as a potential treatment for pollutants? See Paul Stamets How Mushrooms Can Save the World. Mr. Stamets is a highly sought expert on this subject and how mycology is helping stormwater pollutant absorption.

26) What will be done about the potential litter problem that, so far, is kept to a minimum by tree and shrub buffers and mostly impenetrable wetlands, but is a problem in existing trails? Who will regularly clean up the litter?

27) Is it possible that rather than put the east-west trail right next to the pond, it can go more on the perimeter of the wetland and thus have less foot traffic disturbance of the wetland?

28) How do rain gardens tie in with this facility plan and stormwater in general? How will you give the public incentive to utilize them?

29) What is being planned in terms of culverts and aprons in Eastsound?

30) I would hope that any tree removal/upheaval NOT be done in nesting season and until fledglings have flown.

31) Why was this project chosen here, when the bulk of pollutants are running down Main Street in the ditches and directly polluting Fishing Bay through stormwater outflow pipes?

32) What is being done to consider futurity, 20 years out? 50 years out? How does this project help with that? How many more functioning wetlands will be destroyed to make engineered stormwater treatment facilities, which are not suggested for existing functioning wetlands, according to state and federal laws and the Clean Water Act?

Kim’s Input- Went to the constructed wetland plan workshop today
I would like to know more re:>
~ toxics testing and sediment dredge schedule
~out flow pipe monitoring plan- scouring
~buffering the existing true adjacent wetland and
~risks involved in damage to this preexisting adjacent healthy wetland by altering upstream w/ constructed wetlands
~and when i look closely i question if this small tx site is able to handle the volume present, much less the increase load that comes w/ future development, plus increased impervious surface = what mechanisms are in place to handle overflow?
~I would like public to be aware of the presence of the creatures in the bay where this water is being pumped out.
~ Please go to the beach watchers website and republish photos and information from our data on surfactants


Some documents I requested may be able to answer the drainage and runoff questions interspersed throughout.

Thanks for considering these questions, thoughts, ideas, and concerns. Please understand that Eastsound is home to many of us, and we love and want to protect it. I remember the Swale when it was far more diverse in functionality, vegetation and wildlife, and don’t want to keep losing it piecemeal until it’s so destroyed it can be reclassified to “unregulated” and finished off by rampant and poorly planned development.

Sincerely, Sadie Bailey – Eastsound resident

Mount Property Stormwater Treatment Facility - and some thoughts after the final Public Works "Open House"

First of all, my deepest apologies to all of the non-human the inhabitants of the mixed-forest Ecosystem dwelling on the Mount Property; tree beings, plant beings, birds, frogs, salamanders, bats, bees, and other creatures - for not following through and insisting that public Works give us a much better publicized open house after Mid- July. I dropped the ball. Secondly, equally heartfelt apologies to the Citizens who don't yet know what will hit them, especially the citizens of the UGA and the people who worked hard at the Stormwater Facility Aesthetics meetings. No excuses will cut it, but burnout and exhaustion and a broken heart all contributed to the ball drop. This was NOT the time to drop the ball! I feel I let you all down. I let myself down, and the few people who wanted to stop this project or stall it until sanity prevailed. I wish I could have done more for you all instead of retreating. I had to walk away. I wish I didn't have to, could have managed it. This is a set of questions I drafted in June, and apparently never sent to the Aesthetics Committee for feedback and brainstorming. I want it here for posterity.
***********************

email from June 17, 2011

Hello.

I want to thank everyone on the Aesthetics Committee and concerned citizens for their input on the Mount Property Stormwater Facility. I apologize for not contacting Shannon about another open house. I left the ball in her court with the last email I sent her, which was unwise. Frankly, I dropped the ball. If that open house was going to happen, I should have kept at her to do it. I didn't. Had to walk away. I'm sorry, and feel that I let us all down. Still having a very hard time with this project's immanence, and still feel upset that they're going through with this plan. But if not for you people, it would have been worse - so thank you for your time, efforts, and energy. It was a pleasure to watch you all work together and brainstorm your good ideas and intelligent questions and concerns and make the best of a less than ideal situation.

For what it's worth, I'd still like to hear your input on the process if you feel like taking the time; especially any questions you have that are still unresolved, any new questions or concerns. Below is the original draft of concerns to present to your perusal, the public, and PW before the open house that never followed. Thanks again.
Sadie
***********************
Written June 17

Public Works has made some concessions, thanks to good input from Michael and Fred. But from what Shannon said yesterday, I have questions and maybe some of you do too. I would like to compile a list of questions we already asked, questions still to ask, and any answers you got and how satisfied or concerned you are with the answers you got.

The biggies that stand out for me are maintenance and monitoring,. PW consistently seems to run out of money when a big project is done, and they don't seem to factor-in operational, maintenance, suppliy, or monitoring costs. A look at their projects would point to the fact that there might be little to no maintenance and a bigger load on the workers, and this is a concern.

What will happen to the standing trees without tree support in an extreme wind tunnel, and the visual shock of no taller greenery in places where people are used to seeing it? Is the public at all prepared for what they're going to see, including all the old and new commercial construction which will now be visible?

How are affected neighbors feeling, and what suggestions do they have to minimize any negative visual impacts? How will these be satisfied? What has been promised?

Shannon addressed the question of hawthorn seedlings; she said that PW would pull them at the "annual maintenance." Does this mean that they actually think they can weed only once per year? Yikes; terrifying thought.What about the reed canary grass, holly, blackberry, and other weed seedlings that birds and wind will bring in? did anyone find out how often PW plans to weed? Water?

Did anyone talk with mindy? Do you think she is going to bid on the planting job or was she present to write another article for Bullwings? Has anyone contacted Ted T about bidding on the plantings or his thoughts on this project or alternatives he would propose? (Moot questions, since Robin K got the bid; but I'd still like to know Ted's take on things.)

What kind of job do you think Orcas Ex will do on the bulldoze/grade/etc? Sensitive? Not?

Monitoring.... Did anyone hear (and get in writing) what they were planning to do for testing and monitoring? This is hugely important, since this is the whole reason the facility is being engineered. What are the actual plans for monitoring? How will they be implemented? By whom? How often? For what will they test? How much will it cost, now and in the long term? Are there written plans and figures for the public to see?

Why do they have to move the berm further south and thus sacrifice the native crabapples and young scoulers willows on the SW corner? Shannon said it was because they had to make the basin bigger to make up for the shallower settling ponds. Can't that be done instead with gentle meandering grading and mounding? Thoughts?

People who attended the open house; would you please weigh in on what questions you asked and what responses you got? I still think this is important to get documented for including in the public records on this project.

Does anyone know if a representative from the Tribes will be present to be sure that no middens are disturbed? Who would contact Tribal officials - PW? Can we follow through to see if this was done?

Although i am pleased that Michael's and Fred's input at least had some better effect, i still feel that more can be done to minimize the impact without compromising the function of the constructed wetland; and far more cheaply, leaving more money for monitoring and operations. Is this reasoning off base? Anyone else feeling this way too? Ideas?

I missed the bid walk-through at the end of June. Did anyone tag along and see where the trees had been marked more clearly regarding what stays and goes? I asked that they mark the trees and delineation of the existing wetland still staying.

What do you think of PW's answer about the discrepancy between the Polaris map and what the wetland expert said is the existing wetland? I attribute that discrepancy to more degradation of the Swale, thus making it appear to be a less sensitive or important wetland. But all this and more was all once a part of Eastsound Swale. Where does degradation factor in? What will happen to the alluvial soil being removed from this site? It is supposed to be put back, and if tarped, probably could. It's important to save the alluvial soil so the wetland can recover if this plan doesn't work out, and I am skeptical that it will work out, from all the science I have read on emergent wetland stormwater treatment facilities.

Anyone want to document a "maturity count" of trees bigger than 12" diameter at chest height? That would be good to do, unless PW already did that and it's obtainable. If so, would someone please direct me to that link or whom to ask for the documents on that?

If Shannon agrees to another open house, late July, this would be helpful. We can then present accurately to the public what's been answered and what still has holes. That date is fast approaching. (MOOT - too bad. The public should have been more involved in this process)

Who got to see the final planting list? Any red flags there? Has anyone seen copies of this on PW website or in the library, as promised?

all the best,
Sadie

RE: the Sounder's August 24 article on the Critical Areas Ordinance

Well done. Interesting article and thanks for the sensitive coverage.

Huh. As one of the 50% of us who must live in the UGA for economic reasons, seeing working homeowners and first time buyers with modest incomes forced to hook up to sewer at exhorbitant rates for our all-too-low incomes; as I see more and more UGA homes get foreclosed, and as I watch our trees die due to water diversion, poor planning and siting, overbuilding for a population that may or may not occupy the businesses being built; and as I watch certain commercial developers' unscrupulosity and the county repeatedly "missing" important environmental regulations put in place to protect places like Eastsound Swale - I take offense to Richard Fralick's insulting misbelief that we need little or no buffers protecting our critical areas in the UGA and elsewhere. I also rankle every time Mr. Fralick mentions that the "county can do whatever it wants" and his idea that "big dumb buffers" must go. I think the EPA and the State would also find alarming the idea that the County Council feels it can relax most or all environmental protections on one of our largest - if not the largest - category 2 wetland on the island. And, as the article points out, Eastsound has two of the largest category 2 wetlands out of 5. (Lopez Village UGA faces similar environmental issues.)

It insults our intelligence and care and stewardship of a part of the Island (Eastsound Basin) that affects all other parts due to its geological vulnerability, infrastructure, and shoreline habitat. Fishing Bay is one of the few herring spawning places on the Island. The waters do not flush out, thus everything we dump into it stays there.

Some of us are tired of seeing rampant commercial development going through in the UGA, with no EIS, no ramifications, and much of the time, repeat violators obtaining no legal permits - while homeowners get the brunt of the enforcement and heavy-handedness from CD&P, so I agree to a certain extent with property rights viewpoints and their concerns - provided that we all remember that our first mandate is to protect Critical Areas, while balancing the rest of the14 points in our County Charter.

I don't mind "giving a little" and compromise. I understand that all of us must give a little in order to have a situation that is fair. But it seems to me that the low and middle income people forced to live in the UGAs are giving up a lot - almost everything; and they have neither the time nor the money to fight the real deep pockets - those bent on profit first, even if it means destroying the Critical Areas there. Then when any of us tries to stop the destruction, we are seen as dragging the county down. The fact is, the County dragged itself down, and dragged its feet on the CAO for YEARS; thus we have lost a lot of grant opportunities and monies that would have helped to protect our Critical Areas and given the County a financial hand in doing it, and now the larger government will be ineffective to help us, due to attacks on the EPA and DOE.

For years, some of us have said repeatedly that Eastsound was a lousy place for a UGA - it's geographically, geologically, a hazard!. It contains sensitive areas everywhere. It is a narrow land bridge between two steep hills, at sea level. Nobody listened and nobody is listening now. The Growth Management Act doesn't only say that 50% of us must live in a UGA. It also says that we are mandated to protect our critical areas (even in a UGA). The UGA puts the burden on those who can least afford the time or the money to fight rampant commercial development in an area that is supposed to be slated for housing 50% of us, which none of us chose! It seems a little "sprawl" could happen in villages and hamlets and on the other 99% of the islands, thus unburdening us of a bit of our fate. If a tsunami hits Eastsound (likely) this discussion will all be moot because 50% of us and our housing will be washed away.

The decisions being made this year and next will affect all of us, long term. Can we all agree to some compromise, or will 50% of us be the sacrificial lambs for the wants of the rest?

If anyone else in the UGA is interested in more visionary planning and saving our Critical Areas from destruction (outsiders welcome!), then we need some intelligent dialogue, long-term visionary planning and actions to address our conflicting issues in a balanced way. Perhaps it's time for a UGA Citizens' Watchdog Group if the County won't do its job to protect our critical areas. Interested parties, please contact me. I'm in the phone book; or stop and talk with me at Island Market.

Say Goodbye: September 7; the day the bulldozers begin deconstructing a functional mixed-forest wetland for an "engineered wetland" stormwater treatment facility

Mark your calendars. September 7, 2011.

The grim and, to my mind, horrible, beginning of a dubious experiment will begin on this day. Amid the sounds of grinding engines, scraping blades, chain saw roars, snapping tree limbs and trunks, roots ripping from the earth, amid the scramble of terrified birds, bats, and amphibians to escape the crushing 'dozers and find themselves homeless and possibly doomed to die, amid confused bees with no place to go or winter over - 'progress' is being made by destroying a functional wetland ecosystem that only needed a little help, in order to build an elaborate "engineered wetland stormwater treatment facility."

After June's 'open house' with 3 days notice for a handful of people, no newspaper notifications, the inevitability of this disastrous error looming, and the refusal of Public Works to entertain a low-impact alternative requiring only simple grading with shovels and some low-key clearing with maybe a backhoe - much, much cheaper - I'll admit I just wanted to curl into a fetal ball and suck my thumb until the carnage was over. Only it doesn't end in September. We will be seeing the visual impact of this and the dearth of diversity for a long time to come. Think on how long it took to grow each and every filtering tree. Think of all the bio-diverse life that each tree and shrub houses, shelters, shades. Think of all the mature and maturing trees - all soon to be lost.

To their misguided credit, Public Works actually thinks they are doing the right thing: No blame. But they're sadly mistaken. Besides the small plant specimens picked to stay within the woefully inadequate plant budget, many of which will need to be caged for a long time against the onslaughts of rabbits and deer, there are other crucial issues as yet unaddressed. This site is a wind tunnel in an extreme wind area. This parcel is the last forested piece in this particular north-south strip of land - on a section of Orcas that is only one mile wide and at sea level; Eastsound Urban Growth Area. This area contains a large category two wetland - Eastsound Swale. The stormwater facility parcel was once part of the Swale, and not that long ago. 20 yrs. max. Another pressing question that has yet to be satisfactorily answered is: will the grant money run out with no money left for maintenance (weeding, watering), monitoring of how well the filtering is working, and operational costs? From the other projects done by PW, I feel pessimistic, and pretty sure there'll be no money for operations. So what's the motive for obtaining large grants to engineer elaborate things with no budget to follow through and monitor and maintain?

Then there's the science. Scientific field evidence (some of which is included in the Best Available Science documents for SJC's Critical Areas Ordinance in the Wetlands and Stormwater sections), seems to point to 4 unavoidable facts about why this project is likely to fail:
1) stormwater should be diverted AWAY from an existing functional wetland, not into it. Why? Because they eventually, within 20 years, dry it up, as do sedimentation ponds.
2) After 20 or so years of observing failed and failing "emergent" engineered stormwater treatment facilities, the conclusion from many wetland field scientists is that mixed-forest is, after all, best. (We already have that now.)
3) When you remove alluvial soil from a wetland (which Public Works plans to do), it can't recover; maybe not ever.
4)Sedimentation ponds such as retention and detention ponds (which will be built on this site) are not advised for dryland summer areas (two or more months of dry weather, which is what the San Juans have.)The pollution issue alone of storms after a dry season is scary, and probably a topic for another blog post.

At the end of this post I put up a few pictures of the "proposed stormwater site" that I took in spring. The trees were blooming, the bees were humming, the place was full of life, horsetail softly waving on the forest floor, and the honey smells of blooming flowers. Birds darted among the trees. Coolness and shade, wind shelter, and so many shades of green graced this land. I will not forget.

Walk this land while you still have time. Get in touch with the pulse of Life there. Appreciate all that is there; life in abundance. Say good bye. And vow to be vigilant to never to let a poorly planned, over-engineered project such as this happen again in our "Urban Growth Area" home. We must do better to protect our critical areas.

-

Surround this land with protection and your highest thoughts. Send your love and good energy to the tree-beings and their inhabitants and dependents, that their spirits remain eternal and intact although their bodies will die. Send your healing thoughts to the soils and waters of the wetland, that they be protected. Send your respect to the Native ancestors who might lie here, perhaps in middens. (I hope at least we can have someone on site to observe if there are bones, and stop work if there are.) Send your scientific evidence to Public Works and the Council and ask that it be put into the records. Ask, in whatever fashion you do, that the Universe helps the new plant beings to be nurtured and grow and thrive to heal the land.

A Letter to San Juan County Planners, Public Works, and County Council

Dear San Juan County Council, Planning, and Public Works;

In response to the upcoming Planning Commission meeting and comment time for the Critical Areas Ordinance final draft, many questions arise.

What effect do our comments actually have in the course of deciding the final wording on the documents and amendments? I would like to know that what I and others say will count in the final draft, and that all points of view are taken into consideration, but that is not what I have seen in my 30 years of living here. What I have seen instead is cumulative and irreversible damage and destruction of the environment and critical areas, especially in non-shoreline areas, where the state only has advisory capacity and no real jurisdiction. Our forested and marshland wetlands have been consistently compromised and thrown under the bus. This concerns me greatly, especially in UGA areas, where it is most crucial to protect our wetlands. Both Lopez Village and Eastsound contain large category 2 wetlands, as well as other so-called "lesser" wetlands.

Some of us, perhaps the minority, want to ensure protection of our critical areas because once you damage and destroy them, the damage is irreversible and collectively, we really have no idea long-term, of what this means for the greater whole in the long term. We as a county are advised again and again by state DOE to take the path of no harm or least harm; that mitigation is not a real option – rather, no action is advised until all scientific facts are known - and this gets repeatedly ignored by developers and by the county; all because of some projected population growth numbers and refusal to think outside the box. It’s exasperating.

We have no real hope of enforcement for land use laws or the CAO; everyone knows it. Without fixing the enforcement issues so that there is at least one enforcement officer per island and follow-through on enforcement orders, none of this matters because people will keep violating the land and waters, just as they are now and have done all along. What is really going to change that? Besides enforcement, what are the incentives for people to choose to do the right thing, and the education that may help them make these land use decisions?

Why is the Polaris Mapping System not used extensively in land use decisions? Why do the wetland areas appear much larger on the Polaris maps than the county claims they are, and why are we not factoring in the degradation that has already happened? All maps need to all be used, so that we can see the cumulative damage we have altready caused, and therefore exercise extreme caution in the future not to do any worse damage. What is proposed instead? To re-map (ie shrink the wetlands) and then discount the other older maps, which clearly show the degradation over time. We put roads through wetlands, killing countless amphibians. We widen and straighten them, destroying beautiful, healthy mature trees in the process. It hurts my heart to think of all the creatures dependent on these ecosystems and their wholesale slaughter. Is this the best we can do?

I understand that the county has a budget shortfall. So do we workers, who are asked to carry the tax load of the entire nation on our backs. What I don't understand is the propensity of the county to use grant monies to build and engineer elaborate projects and then consistently run out of money for the upkeep and monitoring of these projects, which is exactly what will happen with Eastsound's Mount Property Stormwater Treatment Facility. It will destroy habitat for countless birds, frogs, bats, and will destroy many mature trees and the only windbreak left in that area of Eastsound.

Excuse my seeming cynisicm, but I want some honest and well-thought-out answers and solutions to these complex questions and concerns. To watch this continued destruction of all the plants and creatures who can’t speak for themselves over time has been heartbreaking and infuriating, and leaves me with little trust for County officials, no matter how well-meaning their intentions.

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

What about a Third Option on the Ballot Regarding Solid Waste?

At the town hall meeting on February 24, Orcas council members offered us two options for solid waste to be put on November’s ballot:

1) close the solid waste facilities and force curbside pickup and recycling, or

2) keep the solid waste facilities open as-is by imposing a parcel tax.

This is a risky way to approach the solid waste issue for several reasons.

A) San Juan Sanitation’s contract ends in 2012.  That gives little time to look for alternatives if we want to contract with somebody else.

B) See #1 – too little time to look for a long-haul solution closer than Eastern Oregon.

C) This puts the power in the County’s hands rather than the people’s.

D) There is a third option that we’ve been telling the county we want for years: Keep existing facilities open, and help pay for that by reducing, reusing, and recycling.

This could mean privatization and forming a cooperative much like Opalco. Members would pay a one-time membership fee, pay for services used, and vote in annual meetings. There are creative ways to solve the solid waste issue and the citizenry has the wherewithal to make it happen. We already know that we could stop hauling away things which would make soil. Imagine what else we could do together.

Last summer, a random survey was mailed out to about 1,000 people in the county. Regular independent audits of solid waste as part of the budget solution was overwhelmingly the top priority. (See exhibit 9).  Are those audits available to the public on the County website? If not, why? If we are going to come up with viable alternatives to solve our solid waste issues, we need these numbers for comparison.

 Please read the survey to see if it reflects your goals and desires. Make your voices known through letters, emails, and by becoming a regular witnessing presence at meetings affecting solid waste and other important issues our county faces. At this Thursday’s EPRC meeting, Council will present a solid waste update. We need the third option put on the ballot.

Here is the link to that survey.   
http://www.sanjuanco.com/Docs/CAgendadocs/08-30-2010/PowerPoint_SanJuanSolidWasteSurvey_083010.pdf

Sadie Bailey

Eastsound, WA