A Once in a Decade Opportunity
by Kirk Kirkland
After a successful election in November 2024, the environmental community in Pierce County has a rare chance to work with newly elected leaders to pass our environmental agenda. Considerable ground was lost in the last 8 years, as the previous County Executive used his “Executive Priority” to ignore environmental laws of the county and favor commercial interests.
Over the Christmas holiday I met with leaders in the environmental community and asked them what kind of legislation they would like to pass to undo the damage done by the previous County Executive. They were upset by how he used his “Executive Priority to skirt environmental rules in permitting the Tiny Home Village at Spanaway Marsh. Others wanted to restore our aquifers and return fish to Clover Creek, which has gone dry during summer months.
Below you’ll find the “work plan” for how we’ll work together to take advantage to having a county council majority that wants to keep clean water flowing through our creeks and raising the aquifer to prevent our suburban forests from catching on fire.
The priority issue that I heard about over the holidays was to return the year-round flow of Clover Creek, with clean water and free of 6PPD and other chemicals. This poison in Clover Creek is deadly to salmon runs and comes from car tires. In addition, we want to ensure the Lakewood aquifer hasn’t been contaminated with PFAS, a poison that was used on McChord AFB by firefighters in the past.
Recently, the President increased standards for removing PFAS from aquifers, which gave the issue some priority.
In addition, we want to make sure that Lakewood Water Company has the capacity to continue supplying Spanaway residents with clean water as the county’s Urban Growth Area adds another 100,000 residents.
Water Pollution & Water Quantity: In the last few years some of these issues were discussed with the County Council and partly funded. Now, we are asking for a feasibility study to look beyond the problem of local water companies staying financially solvent.
We want to know whether or not the aquifers, the sole source of water for many, are being sufficiently recharged every year. An annual test of wells in the area by the county health department will ensure that new residential developments using the guidelines of the Centers & Corridors Plan in Spanaway will not run out of water as the population rises along this corridor.
Changes in Planning and Public Works: These changes will require an Executive Priority to update 16 storm drains flowing into Clover Creek that will assure the aquifer is recharged with clean water. In addition we need to change planning rules to require environmental review of large projects without forcing neighborhoods, residents and activists to raise so much money for challenging county permits in Superior Court.
The Coalition would like the county to stop using their Determination of Nonsignificance and require large construction projects to complete an Environmental Impact Statement. In addition, the county must eliminate Planned Development Districts, which allow large developments to avoid using an Environmental Impact Statement to review of their impacts.
Read more about aquifer recharge and clean water in our creeks here:
Executive Priority: In the last eight years the former Pierce County Executive has put economic development first, creating huge loss to the environment and to the water quality in our creeks.. In particular, the use of Executive Priority encouraged the planning staff to ignore county regulations when handing out permits in the wildlife corridors at Spanaway Marsh.
He also allowed expansion of suburban sprawl into the rural areas of the county by using a bonus density provision of county code. And his staff allowed the growth of industrial aquaculture in a shoreline of state significance at Burley Lagoon to permit the largest Geoduck farm in the county.
Spanaway needs trails, sidewalk and bike lanes to accommodate the influx of people planned for with the Centers and Corridors program. It’s time to connect all the schools together with a system of sidewalks.
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Challenge of Population Growth: The recently passed proposal called Center’s and Corridors Plan will provide more kinds of dense housing in apartments and other high density buildings for the influx of new people from other states. The county can not stop this wave of people moving here for Jobs and affordable housing. We can however use our impact fees for transportation and parks be used to make this sprawling suburb into an attractive village by adding bike lanes, sidewalks, street trees, and parks
The Spanaway Community has waited a long time for the school children in these neighborhoods to use a system of sidewalks that provides a safe way to walk or bike to school. In addition, we are proposing creating a Development District that funds infrastructure areas mapped by the Centers and Corridors Plan. This would create consistency when developers can pay a fee to the county for their portion of the upgrade of the streetscape. This ensures an equal distribution of improvements during the development period.
Election of Ryan Mello: Now with the election of Ryan Mello to the executive office, these water quality and quantity problems need to be given a priority. We propose an annual survey of aquifers to insure adequate water in the future for new residents in the Spanaway area. Our long term goal is to raise the aquifer’s level and ground water for the fish in the creek, but also to keep trees along the waterways from dying and catching on fire in summer with drought or increased heat.
Determination of Nonsignificance: It’s also time to change the planning department’s policy from issuing a Determination of Nonsignificance (DnS) for a large commercial development in Rural Reserve Zones. At Spanaway Marsh the DNS allowed over 280 tiny homes to be constructed on a 30 acre building site. This change would have prevented the Spanaway Concerned Citizens from paying over $140,000 to take the county to court to enforce the State Environmental Protection Act .
Community Planning Advisory Changes are also needed to revive the Community Planning Advisory Commissions. These commissions need to be given options to represent the people instead of favor developers. County planners should not ignore decisions of a LUAC when they deny a permit.
At Burley Lagoon, the neighbors had to raise money to appeal the Conditional Use Permit after the county approved an Industrial Aquaculture project in Burley Lagoon. The staff ignored a federal court decision requiring a Cumulative Impact Analysis for shoreline projects of this size.
The rule of law. We’re asking our new executive to return the Rule of Law. We would like to see the planning department put the people and their environment first. The planning department should enforce county code about wetland buffers and should not have given out a Fill and Clear Permit that allowed the removal of over 900 trees before the appeal of the permit was settled in Superior Court.
Read more about the Rule of Law here:
County Hearing Examiner Process: Our agenda for this New Year includes changes to the county Hearing Examiner process. We want to avoid the injustice of asking over 100 people in the hearing room and asking 80 people waiting on Zoom from being denied the right to testify. These people should not have been asked to wait from 9 am in the morning until 6 pm in the evening before they were given a chance to speak by the Hearing Examiner. Only 20 people stayed in the hearing room to testify.
Appearance of Fairness Doctrine: In June 2024 the county hired a special Hearing Examiner who violated the Appearance of Fairness Doctrine. We want a new policy for the examiner’s office that puts in place rules that would prevent the future Hearing Examiner from intimidating speakers and not allowing witnesses to complete their comments.
We believe the county council and the new executive will work with us to restore the faith the people had in their county government. It begins with letting people speak first instead of waiting for the end of a public hearing. It’s a lot to ask a speaker to wait through several hours of staff presentations before people can make a 3-minute speech.
Prairie Post editor Marianne Lincoln published a story that reviewed the 8-year performance of our previous County Executive. The story outlines how the faith that people had in their government was lost. It shows the favoritism shown to projects that involved economic development.
To restore faith, we will ask the Planning Department to adhere to new set of priorities that favor the Rule of Law which begins with hearing about the State Environmental Policy Act and ends with hearings about the Shoreline Management Act.
Read Marianne’s story here:
https://forevergreencouncil.org/prairie-post-editor-has-alternate-view-of-county-executives-legacy/
Chambers Bay Dam and Al Schmauder
Al Schmauder was in Mexico when he heard about a county budget item of a million dollars allocated for removal of the dam. After 8 years of delaying the removal of Chambers Bay Dam it is time for Public Works to focus on restoring the estuary below the Chambers Creek Dam. The Chinook Salmon that are protected by Endangered Species Act, need to be able to swim upstream and return to Chambers and Clover creeks.
Whether the dam gets built within the next 5 years remains a question as an upstream bridge may have priority and be built first. More news next month to see which is first.
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Restoration of Chambers Bay:
State Legislature and Priorities from Futurewise:
Futurewise is a statewide organization which sponsors a list of changes in the Growth Management Act that solve the problems of suburban sprawl. This year they sponsored Climate Change proposals that offered ways to meet state limits on carbon emissions generated by transportation and urban design.
The Environmental Coalition provides a monthly summary of progress in the legislature, and participates in Lobby Day. In addition, our members are encouraged to participate in legislative committee hearings by sending e-mails to our county delegation.
You can participate each week in the state legislative process by using information provided by Futurewise. You can use your e-mail to attend hearings and register your approval or disapproval of legislation. Read more here:
Pierce County Council fills vacancy for District 5:
The Pierce County Council chose Bryan Yambe from a pool of three candidates to be the new Pierce County Council member for District 5. He will finish the term of out-going Marty Campbell, who was elected to be the County Auditor in November. Yambe’s appointment is for one year. He can run for re-election in November 2025 and again in 2026.
After several hours of debate and three split partisan votes, the Pierce County Council chose Yambe on Tuesday, January 14th. The unanimous council vote came after three votes to fill the seat failed along party lines. If the council had not been able to agree on a candidate, they would have had until Feb. 28 to decide before the governor would appoint the candidate.
District 5 is wide-ranging, and includes the communities of Browns Point, Dash Point, Fife Heights, City of Fife, Midland, North Clover Creek, Tacoma’s Eastside and Northeast Tacoma, Parkland, Spanaway and Summit-Waller and Port of Tacoma.
Bryan Yambe was the candidate with the most election experience. He is presently Deputy Mayor of the town of Fife and serves on the Fife City Council. He currently is in his third full term, having been elected to his position in 2015, in 2019 and again in 2023.
Yambe comes into office with experience in policy making, serving on boards, doing commission work, and political campaigning. In an interview with the county council, he was most proud of bringing people together and building community. Yambe stated that among his accomplishments are helping to secure $100 million in federal and state funding for transportation projects in the region, diversifying local boards and commissions and supporting the Fife Jobs Program to provide job training and housing for people experiencing homelessness.
On the Fife City Council, Yambe said, he takes time to invest in relationships and find compromise, including with those who see the world differently than he does.
“I know that no one gets everything they want, and I will work very hard to make sure that even after those decisions are made, everyone feels listened to and supported,” he said. “Good governance is a priority for me, and it’s always been key. That’s not just an aspirational role, that’s something that I have to work to practice every time.”
Some goals Yambe said he would bring to his County Council role include ensuring wage adjustments keep pace with actual costs of living, especially for those on a fixed income, senior citizens and people with disabilities. He also said he would join efforts to address high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous people.
At the conclusion of Tuesday’s meeting, after Yambe was approved, his first act of office was to place the key vote in appointing Jani Hitchen of District 6 as the council chair, Paul Herrera of District 2 to vice chair and Robyn Denson of District 7 to executive pro tempore. The executive pro tempore will hold office and perform the duties of Democratic Executive Ryan Mello in the case of his absence or temporary disability.
According to the Fife City ‘Bio of Bryan Yambe’ he has experience serving on these boards and committee, several of which he is likely to continue as a County Council Member.
Pierce County Regional Council
PSRC Economic Development District Board
Pierce County Cities & Towns Association
Tribal Liaison
Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health (alternate)
City Council Experience (Fife)
Education
Decatur High School Graduate
Highline Community College
Washington State Student Leadership
Just who is the Environmental Coalition?
The coalition is people like John Garner who has been an environmental advocate for decades. He created a Biodiversity Management plan that identified 14 properties in Pierce County for protection.
The final Pierce County Biodiversity Network identified 267,784 acres of biologically-rich areas that are within Pierce County and connecting corridors. The habitat types represented in the Biodiversity Network include lowland riparian areas and wetlands, oak savannas and prairies, old-growth forests, and alpine meadows. Many of these habitats contain imperiled species including Chinook Salmon, Western Gray Squirrel, Spotted Owl and Western Pond Turtle.
One of the most import Biodiversity Management Areas was Spanaway Marsh.
Officially, the Coalition is a nonprofit educational organization which publishes monthly environmental news, lobbies state and county legislatures and endorses people running for elected office. We do not have meetings, we do not have members, we do not asks for donations.
Partnership Organization: We partner with other environmental organizations in the county. We help organizations with their fundraising, with their press relations and with lobbying the county council. We have several “Directors” who write articles, provide legal counsel, and have experience in appealing Conditional Use Permits. We also have 1,400 readers who complain about the lack of enforcement of environmental laws.