Requiem for Semiahmoo

3/16/25 letter to Whatcom County and Lummi Nation:

Water pollution can degrade our surface waters, making them unsafe for drinking, fishing, swimming and other activities. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program, created in 1972 by the Clean Water Act, helps address water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States. (See National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit Basics)

The Clean Water Act prohibits anybody from discharging "pollutants" through a "point source" into a "water of the United States" unless they have an NPDES permit. NPDES permits in Washington State are issued by the Department of Ecology. According to the EPA, the 33,923 acre Dakota Creek-Frontal Drayton Harbor watershed is an impaired water body. Stormwater runoff into Dakota Creek and Drayton Harbor from Planned Unit Developments (PUDs) citywide require an NPDES permit, which Blaine does not have.

The Washington Department of Ecology (DOE) Phase II stormwater permits require use of the DOE 2024 Stormwater Management Manual, which Whatcom County has adopted. Blaine has not, and is still using the less rigorous 2019 manual, despite Blaine's Urban Growth Areas (UGAs) and (PUDs) approved in 2023-2024 nearly doubling our population surrounding an impaired water body (Dakota Creek-Drayton Harbor) and atop Blaine's Critical Aquifer Recharge Area (CARA) for its municipal drinking water.

By issuing fraudulent State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) Determinations of Non-Significance (DNS), Blaine Community Development Services director Alex Wenger evaded legally required Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) on PUDs citywide using the 2019 stormwater manual, thus enabling pollution of the Dakota Creek-Drayton Harbor watershed.

Before there was a City of Blaine, there was the Lummi Indian village on Semiahmoo Spit, where the Resort Semiahmoo is today. At the other end of the spit near Semiahmoo County Park is a Lummi burial ground.

Inside the spit is Drayton Harbor, a water of the United States, and estuary for Dakota Creek. 

The proposed high-density development projects by Blaine Community Development Services on Semiahmoo Spit is of concern to Lummi Nation, as are development proposals at the mouth of Dakota Creek (a stream with endangered chinook salmon), and downtown near Cain Creek where a salmon restoration project is planned by Washington State adjacent to a toxic waste site.

In the interest of harmonizing the Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan and that of Blaine, we ask that the Whatcom County Council enact a Development Moratorium and SEPA Review of the PUDs and Zoning Text Amendments unlawfully passed by Blaine City Council in 2023-2024 due to fraudulent SEPA designations by Blaine Community Development Services. 

This Whatcom County review would include harmonizing the Shoreline Management Programs and Critical Areas Ordinances that are presently inconsistent, posing a grave threat to the Drayton Harbor Watershed--which includes the Critical Aquifer Recharge Area for Blaine's drinking water--as well as the need for the City of Blaine to apply for an NPDES permit due to Drayton Harbor being a Water of the United States.

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