City of Blaine Lawbreaking

My June 13, 2024, letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington Department of Ecology, Whatcom County Council, and Blaine City Council:

I am unable to get my mind around how Washington Department of Ecology (DOE) and the U.S. EPA allowed the City of Blaine Community Development Services (CDS) SEPA official to issue a DNS for the Planned Unit Developments in the Critical Aquifer Recharge Area (CARA) for our municipal drinking water when the laws DOE and the EPA purport to uphold unequivocally require an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that thoroughly examines the cumulative impacts.

When your agencies fail to uphold the law, as you have done in our community, this burden unfairly falls on the shoulders of citizens of Blaine to hold our local government accountable. Due to the deep corruption at CDS, and financial conflicts of interest of two city council members who did not recuse themselves when approving the CARA rezone to increase development density, the threat to the Sumas Aquifer that supplies water for Blaine residents has no protection.

Citizens of Blaine have been kept in the dark by our local paper The Northern Light, which covered up CDS crimes and then discredited community activists working to protect our aquifer. You, however, are responsible for overseeing our city government actions that violate the Clean Water Act, the Growth Management Act, and the Civil Rights Act. The concerted effort by Blaine officials to prevent public participation in planning our future should concern you.

In the 1990s, as the unpaid litigation director for Whatcom Environmental Council, we spent five years setting legal precedent before the Growth Management Hearings Board and Washington Supreme Court. Simultaneously, Whatcom Falls Neighborhood Association of which I was president won our case before the Washington Court of Appeals to protect Lake Whatcom. These efforts cost us $50,000 out of pocket and forced me into bankruptcy.

Citizens of Blaine, Whatcom County, and Washington State should not have to pay to uphold the laws guarding public water supplies when you are already being paid to do that. The attitude of Blaine CDS has greatly discouraged public participation in vital community planning; your inaction on our requests for help will tell the lawbreakers at Blaine City Hall to carry on while telling us that we don't matter. Please think about that before deciding on your response to our desperate plea.

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