Blaine Confidential

  "The City's course of conduct evidences willful delay and concealment." --Judith A Endejan, Endejan Law, LLC Geoffrey Baker vs. The City Of Blaine Complaint for Violation of the Washington Public Records Act

Whatcom County oversees many special purpose districts with taxing authority to meet public needs. A CARA Protection District for Blaine and Birch Bay that can purchase the East Blaine Critical Aquifer Recharge Area properties in order to protect our public water system fits that purpose. Watch the   Water Planning Matters video . Putting this aquifer in public hands is of strategic importance to public health. The East Blaine CARA supplies 100% of the drinking water to Blaine and Birch Bay residents, and is now under urgent threat from urban pollution. Community members are alarmed there is no comprehensive plan to protect this irreplaceable resource. Please ask the Whatcom County Council to support Water Planning Matters  declaratory order request  to the Washington Department of Health.

I am an historian of essential history unreported by media. Thirteen years ago, my piece  White Power on the Salish Sea  was published in a Canadian magazine. For thirty years ,  I worked as part of a national network of researchers, analysts, and journalists that did opposition research defending democracy. We provided essential information on domestic terrorism to the U.S. State Department and Department of Justice, and provided estimates of situations to human rights organizers and educators who were targets of the Christian Patriot white supremacists--known for murdering 168 people in the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.  I did open source research , but I collaborated with financial analysts, and private investigators in Toronto and San Francisco as part of the Public Good network. We compared taking down bigots through research to a treasure hunt; sometimes we found gold. Researchers aren't always good writers, though, which is where I came ...

[Excerpts from How City Planning Departments Skirt Compliance in Washington State by Water Planning Matters.] October 15, 2025, the City had released over 100 previously withheld files , including important Department of Ecology (Ecology) concerns about frequently flooded areas, unmaintained ponds that flooded Birch Bay Village, disturbed and unprotected wetlands used for contaminated stormwater, polluted streams and project engineering correspondence...  The City and Applicant discounted Ecology's frequently flooding areas and wetlands concerns , ... and ignored an impaired creek deserving of protection for fish and lagoons in Birch Bay Village, primarily on procedural grounds, choosing to approve the project in a vacuum of missing facts and outdated city maps... There appeared to be concerted efforts by Applicant and City to exclude consequential information that might affect the buildable footprint or higher costs relating to mitigating flooding, pollution or wetlands damage r...

 April 19 letter to Whatcom County Planning Commission: The fraudulent Critical Area and SEPA determinations by the City of Blaine that underlie the designated Urban Growth Areas over the East Blaine municipal aquifer, in the Central Business District, and at Birch Point--combined with the elimination of public participation and the facilitation of self-dealing by Blaine public officials--require that the Whatcom County Planning Commission reject the Blaine Comprehensive Plan in its entirety, and advise the county council to request an investigation by the Washington State Auditor and Attorney General. Given this egregious violation of our civil rights, to do otherwise would expose Whatcom County to unnecessary potential liability.

In May, Whatcom County Council will adopt the 10-year update to the Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan, that includes the City of Blaine Comprehensive Plan update. Blaine's update includes municipal code changes that   eliminate public participation ,   financially benefit Blaine officials , and threaten public health .  All are illegal, and this should be communicated by Blaine and Birch Bay citizens to the county planning commission, county council, and county prosecutor ASAP. Whatcom County contacts: pds_planning_commission@co.whatcom.wa.us council@co.whatcom.wa.us 2025update@co.whatcom.wa.us erichey@co.whatcom.wa.us