DRAYTON HARBOR ESTUARY

To paraphrase the Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan, the days of using our salmon streams as sewers are over. In other words, responsible development, not rapacious. The City of Blaine, unfortunately, is guided by sales tax fervor rather than careful consideration of the consequences for the Drayton Harbor watershed.

On June 13, 2025, Blaine Water Coalition filed a request for investigation with the Washington State Auditor of unlawful conduct and legal violations by City of Blaine officials related to recent zoning changes enacted by the Blaine City Council.

These zoning changes were approved by a Blaine Planning Commissioner despite his direct financial conflict of interest that increased his personal real estate commission.

Zoning changes for properties on Cain Creek and Dakota Creek--both salmon streams--illegally reduced shoreline setbacks by 50% in the Drayton Harbor estuary, a Water of the United States, where Lummi Nation exercises its treaty rights to harvest salmon and shellfish. 

Zoning changes enacted by Blaine City Council that violate the State Environmental Policy Act and federal Clean Water Act between 2022 and 2025 have become routine absent state enforcement. All these zoning changes conflict with county, state, and federal standards set to prevent further degradation of a once-abundant ecosystem inhabited by the ancestors of Lummi Nation.


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