TREATING STREAMS LIKE SEWERS

June 20 letter to Whatcom County Council:

At the outset of the 2025 10-year update to the Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan, Whatcom County Planning published an inspirational lead to the new planning document, which stated that the days of treating streams like sewers is over. In Blaine, that is unfortunately not true. Blaine's salmon streams are polluted by a mismanaged sewer and stormwater system, as well as by complete non-enforcement of the city's Shoreline Management Program.

As illustrated by the current Whatcom Watch article exposing felonious injury to the public record by Blaine Hearing Examiner Phil Olbrechts, what the state designates as salmon streams are now called ditches by the city. The failure of the Whatcom County Council to intervene on this matter that threatens Birch Bay Village with massive flooding is not the only instance of county government neglect. All of Blaine's Birch Point development plans violate state law.

The upcoming State Health Law Judge hearing regarding contamination risks to Blaine's public water system--due to city fraud in approving a PUD over the municipal aquifer--accentuates the irresponsibility of Whatcom County Health and Planning departments, while the council remains willfully oblivious to the public health threat now unfolding.

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