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MOMENT OF TRUTH

May 11 letter to Blaine City Council: When Blaine City Manager Mike Harmon was a child, I was leading North Cascades Audubon Society to victory at the Washington Supreme Court, protecting Critical Areas statewide. One Critical Area I noted in need of protection is the east Blaine municipal drinking water Critical Aquifer Recharge Area, which Creekside manufactured home park would contaminate, easily costing Blaine utility customers tens of millions of dollars in remediation. Perjury and fraud by Harmon and Blaine Community Development Services director Alex Wenger have led you to believe that Blaine can violate state and federal laws that protect public health and public water systems without consequence. The May 7, 2026 Washington Department of Health order undermines that belief. The unconstitutional SEPA Zoning Amendments to the Blaine Municipal Code are likewise doomed to failure when reviewed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Learn more at Creekside Compliance Watch ....
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LACK OF LEADERSHIP

May 11 letter to Blaine City Council from Glen Pentland: Blaine’s leadership has failed the community by systematically shutting the public out of meaningful participation in shaping the city’s future. That failure has now reached a critical point: City Hall has abandoned its responsibility for downtown planning by stripping away important building codes and handing control to profit-driven developers to dictate the vision for Blaine’s future, while residents are pushed to the sidelines. The City is now seeking further legislation to eliminate public participation. Good government requires meaningful public engagement. Instead, Blaine’s government has treated community participation as a threat rather than an essential part of responsible leadership. Strong communities are built when residents are brought into the planning process — resulting in better decision-making, stronger civic pride, greater volunteerism, and a shared commitment to the future of the city. Most importantly, succe...
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ELIMINATING PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

In order to eliminate public participation in land use planning , Blaine City Council on May 11, 2026 plans to  1) approve the Creekside manufactured home park over the city aquifer , and  2) adopt SEPA zoning amendments to the Blaine Municipal Code.  These amendments impose a $7,500 fee to challenge environmental decisions by Blaine Community Development Services: State Environmental Policy Act Determination--$2,500 Critical Areas Determination--$2,500 Stormwater Report--$2,500 By deferring core engineering reviews of the Creekside PUD final stormwater report to post-approval administrative processes, the City requires the public to pay another $2,500 administrative/quasi-judicial appeal fee to challenge basic technical assumptions that should have been resolved on the record before Council action. These public participation fees are the highest by far in Washington state.  SEPA appeals in Seattle cost $150. Blaine charges 15 times that amount.
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REQUEST REMAND ORDINANCE 26-3045

On May 8, 2026, Water Planning Matters requested that Blaine City Council remand Creekside PUD Ordinance 26-3045 to the Blaine Hearing Examiner.  The present record contains material inaccuracies , unresolved engineering and wetland protection defects, procedural inconsistencies, and statutory omissions that preclude the Council from making the findings required for approval of the ordinance under the Blaine Municipal Code and Revised Code of Washington.  Blaine's environmental determination was issued before wetland modeling was completed , and before any formal stormwater adequacy determination was made. By the Examiner's own standard, a State Environmental Policy Act determination that precedes complete environmental information is irresponsible. The Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance here preceded the fundamental hydrologic modeling that would have allowed the City, third party experts and the public to evaluate stormwater, wetland, and drainage impacts. ...
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TIME TO CLEAN UP DRAYTON HARBOR SEWAGE

Whatcom County will probably pay for neglecting to protect Lummi ancestral burial grounds on Point Roberts, as the City of Blaine paid when the city knowingly unearthed 100+ human remains in a registered Lummi burial ground on Semiahmoo Spit in 1999. Semiahmoo Resort is located where a major Lummi village flourished for five thousand years. There are Lummi cultural artifacts throughout the Semiahmoo Peninsula.  Lummi treaty rights to salmon and shellfish require that Blaine clean up Drayton Harbor, which is currently under a Department of Ecology/EPA TMDL mandatory reduction in human fecal bacteria pollution, which will likely mean expensive upgrades to the Lighthouse Point sewer treatment plant in Marine Park, as well as stormwater detention there. The Dakota Creek/California Creek/Drayton Harbor estuary has great potential for raising wild salmon and oysters, but for that to happen, Blaine needs to clean up its act.
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WHEN PLANNING DEPARTMENTS LIE

May 9 letter to WA State Senate candidate Eamonn Collins: Dear WA State Senate candidate Collins, The Washington State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) requires specific questions be asked of land use developers by cities and counties. When land use development applicants or planning departments lie, in theory, the state departments of ecology, health, and auditor hold them accountable. In reality, they do nothing of the sort, leaving it to citizens to fight both municipal and developer attorneys who are breaking the law.  The consequence can be seen throughout the Salish Sea region, where unlawful developments are now undermining decades of salmon recovery efforts by Northwest tribes. To expedite these developments--now destroying the Critical Aquifer Recharge Areas in east and west Blaine that moderate flooding and provide drinking water to all Blaine and Birch Bay residents--Blaine City Council plans to adopt amendments to the Blaine Municipal Code on Monday, May 11 that would im...
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PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS

May 4 letter to Whatcom County Council chair Kaylee Galloway, Dear Whatcom County Council chair Galloway, I read in  Whatcom Watch  that you are a  climate science advocate . As such, you now have the opportunity to put your values to work for the public good, in the largest housing development in Whatcom County. Also published in  Whatcom Watch  this month is a Water Planning Matters article about the Blaine Hearing Examiner  removing climate science from the public record , as well as WA Department of Ecology wetland and aquifer maps that conflict with those of the City of Blaine. You can also read about  arsenic contamination of Blaine's municipal water supply . We need your leadership to correct this planning travesty that threatens Birch Bay Village with flooding, and all 17,000 Blaine and Birch Bay consumers of Blaine potable water system. You need to mobilize the County Health director to intervene now, not later when the aquifer is deforested a...
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