Heedless Destruction

By now, you may have read that the State Department of Natural Resources has issued a "Notice to Comply", based on a violation of the State Forest Practices Act, for the land clearing on the Gateway Pacific coal terminal site at Cherry Point. The picture above is from the DNR violation notice, which states:

Cutting and clearing of timber in excess of 5,000 board feet, including live, dead, and down material has occurred without an approved Forest Practices Application/Notification (FPA/N). All trees and vegetation have been cut or pushed over in approximately 15 foot wide corridors totaling approximately 23,132 feet in length. Approximately 9.1 acres have been impacted in total.

Ground disturbance with heavy equipment appears to have occurred within forested wetlands. Trees have been pushed over and stumps removed.

You may also have read that the lawyer representing Climate Solutions, Sierra Club and RE Sources sent the County a letter point out that the DNR notice triggered a mandatory six-year moratorium on the development of the site under our County Code (Whatcom County Code 20.80.738(1)(a)(iii)). That sounds tougher than it is – the “moratorium” in fact will only apply until the County’s hearing examiner decides that the applicant didn’t “intend” to violate the law and will meet other conditions.

Still, the important point is that our own County law clearly requires the County to take a hard look at the harm caused on the site by land clearing before the County can even accept an application for the project.

The Bellingham Herald Politics Blog posted the DNR Notice here and wrote about it here. It posted the Earthjustice letter here and wrote about it here.

All of this activity inspired me to take another look at the most recent crop of e-mails posted to the County website, just out of curiosity.

And I learned that “heavy ground clearing equipment” doesn’t just take out trees.

While out “inadvertently” clearing nine acres of trees and wetlands, that heavy ground clearing equipment also “inadvertently exposed” an archeological site.

“Inadvertent” means “not attentive, heedless.”

At some point, the heedless destruction of our heritage ought to make us mad.

Here’s the correspondence, from pages 99-102 of the online documenting containing e-mails from July 30-August 5 (I rearranged the messages so they would be in chronological order):

>>> Skip Sahlin <Skip.Sahlin@SSAMarine.com> 8/4/2011 6:33 PM >>>

Dear Stephenie,

Thank you for taking my phone call today regarding the site disturbance at WH451 and providing guidance on how to submit an Inadvertent Discovery Report. At your request we addressed the report to Rob Whitlam and Lance Lundquist also. Attached is the report prepared by Jason Cooper, archeology consultant to the project. After reviewing the report please contact Jason or myself with what the next step are going to be for remedying the situation. As always, feel free to contact me directly with question (206) 654-3510. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Skip Sahlin

1131 SW Klickitat Way

Seattle, WA 98134

From: "Lynn, Bill"

To: "Tyler Schroeder"

Date: 8/5/2011 7:52 AM

Subject: GPT

I understand there may be a County requirement regarding the midden that was in the area exposed recently. I did not see anything in a quick review of the code and a word search. Would you mind directing me? We want to make sure we get it 100% right. Thanks

William T. Lynn

Attorney at Law

1201 Pacific Avenue, Suite 2100

Tacoma, Washington 98402

T 253 620 6416

F 253 620 6565

http://www.gth-law.com

NOTICE: The information contained in this e-mail communication is confidential and may be protected by the attorney/client or work product privileges. If you are not the intended recipient or believe that you have received this communication in error, please do not print, copy, retransmit, disseminate, or otherwise use the information. Also, please indicate to the sender that you have received this email in error and delete the copy you received. Thank you.

-----Original Message-----

From: Tyler Schroeder [mailto:tschroed@co.whatcom.wa.us]

Sent: Friday, August 05, 2011 8:20 AM

To: Lynn, Bill

Subject: Re: GPT

Bill,

Whatcom County three general areas when inadvertent language is discussed. Those areas are within the Shoreline Management Plan (WCC23.90.07), Point Roberts Special District (WCC 20.72.652(3)) and SEPA (WCC16.08) through distribution to DAHP. It has been common practice that we use the language found in WCC 20.72.652(3) throughout Whatcom County when inadvertent discovery has occurred. This is mainly to make sure the state laws on Archaeology resources are followed. If the areas are within Shoreline Management Jurisdiction please refer to WCC 23.90.07(2) for additional language on inadvertent discovery.

Let me know if that helps and if you have any more questions.

Thanks,

Tyler

From: Tyler Schroeder

To: Stephanie Drake

Date: 8/8/2011 3:58 PM

Subject: Fwd: Inadvertent Discovery Report 45WH1

Stephanie,

Here is the email sent to me in regards to the Inadvertent Discovery. I have redacted the report to protect the privacy of the exact location as require by state PDR law.

Tyler R. Schroeder

Current Planning Supervisor

Phone: (360) 676-6907 ext. 50202

Fax: (360)738-2525

Email: Tschroed@co.whatcom.wa.us

Address:

Whatcom County Planning and Development Services

5280 Northwest Dr.

Bellingham, WA 98225