Formal Complaint to EPA

[Introduction to the June 3, 2024, Blaine Water Coalition formal complaint to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)]

Ms. Lilian Dorka 

Director U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of External Civil Rights Compliance (ECRCO) Mail Code 2310A 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20460 

June 3, 2024 

Dear Ms. Dorka, 

We are residents of the City of Blaine and Whatcom County, Washington. We believe the City of Blaine does not balance the interests of its citizens in protecting Critical Aquifer Recharge Areas (CARAs) and Critical Resource Areas (CRAs) that ensure resilience, sustainability and safe affordable drinking water for our community and others served by our water supply. The City is discriminating against low, fixed-income and disadvantaged citizens by making it impossible for citizens to comment, modify or appeal development plans that endanger our community’s public health, welfare and safety. The City of Blaine has consistently failed to incorporate citizen comments in modifying its development and Planned Unit Development (“PUD”) plans (extensive documentation of evidence over the past 4 years from 300 citizens available). 

The City of Blaine PUD hearing examiner process is fundamentally flawed, resulting in environmental injustice and discriminatory outcomes. It should be replaced with a more equitable, community-centered approach immediately. 

We hereby submit this formal complaint against the City of Blaine's Hearing Examiner Process for Type II hearings and proposed Amendments to BMC 17 Land Use and Development sections 17.06, 17.60, 17.64, and 17.68 (“the Amendments”). These Amendments, if enacted, will drastically alter the city's land use and permit approval processes, concentrating authority with the conflicted City of Blaine planning department (dba Community Development Services) which indirectly controls a city-appointed and paid Hearing Examiner who works at the behest of city interests. 

The current Hearing Examiner Process for Type II hearings severely curtails public participation. It eliminates citizen oversight of public health safety a drinking water aquifer that serves up to 12,000 residents and surface water-connected streams protected under the Clean Water Act (Shoreline Management Act). 

The conflicted City of Blaine Community Development Services [“CDS” or Blaine City Planning Department] neither has the capability, capacity, nor intent to balance the needs of its citizens, including protecting our drinking water supply with planned, sustainable growth. Greater citizen oversight of CDS planning functions is required, not centralization of CDS authority with these proposed Amendment changes and the current flawed Type II hearing process.

We are discriminated against, since appeals of hearing examiner decisions require extensive legal adjudication of citizen resources, time and money, such as the Growth Management Hearings or filings in Superior Court. The current Type II Hearing Examiner process and the proposed Amendment violate our state Constitutional rights, and federal Civil Rights and have led to the asymmetrical concentration of developer interests that threaten public water supply and safety in the CARA.

[Conclusion]

The City of Blaine's current Hearing Examiner Process for Public Hearings and the proposed Amendments to BMC 17 represent a significant undermining of public health safety, CARA, US Waterway and Shoreline protections, public participation, and civil rights. We urge the respective State of Washington Attorney Generals, EPA, WSHRC, and DOE to take swift action to investigate the City of Blaine’s public hearing and appeal process and request that legal and compliance actions be taken to redress the discriminatory practices at the City of Blaine, its Planning Department - CDS and City Council. This helps the interests of Blaine's residents, marginalized communities, and the public safety of our water supply and environment. We stand ready to cooperate fully with your agencies in this matter and to provide substantial, 2000 hours of documentation supporting the concerns made herein. 

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