WHY
SULTAN NEEDS A CRITICAL AREAS ORDINANCE
-- AND --
EFFECTIVE CODE ENFORCEMENT
G.R.I.T.'s
Main CAO (Critical Areas Ordinance)
The City of Sultan Council utterly rejected this protective ordinance,
not once, not twice, but three times, and despite the fact that passage
has been mandated by the Growth Management Hearings Board. Some council
members may say it's a matter of principal -- that government has grown
too big, bossy, brassy and bullying. But self interests and property rights
are at the heart of the matter. And if that is so, why aren't these council
members out stumping to get I-933 passed to exercise their "principle"
rather than helping to create more environmental damage and mess for which
the Sultan taxpayers will pay the cost?
Wagley Creek during LID 97-1 (sewer line construction)
Other Sultan Environmental violations
Read
the DOE Inspection Report of Timber Ridge.
Please be aware that the DOE (Dept. of Ecology) inspector only viewed
the eastern portions of the Timber Ridge site and its stormwater pond,
ignoring the runoff that has been occurring over many months on Timber
Ridge's western slopes and along Sultan Basin Road. (This is not surprising,
as the "tour" was guided by Neil Latta.)
Responsible Parties:
- Tim Albers, President, Ponderosa Pacific, Inc.
- Neil Latta, TR's Project Engineer during approval process and P.E., W.E.B. Engineering, Ltd.
- Jason Bruers, ISI Infrastructure Systems
and
The City of Sultan, for their failure to enforce the most basic use of BMPs during construction.
above the extremely critical Wagley Creek, a Type 3 ESA-rated stream,
next to the critically-important Sultan Basin Road (which crosses Wagley Creek)
|
TIMBER
RIDGE and Sultan Basin Road
|
Timber
Ridge and Sultan Basin Road
|
Timber Ridge as itlooked in the Summer of 2006 (before most of the rains came):
Photo
above clearly indicates the hard clay base which comprises the critical
northern slope
on which homes along the upper (private, dead-end) roadway will be constructed.
ABOVE PHOTO graphically displays the solid "ramp" of hard, solid clay (except when rains hit) upon which TR is being constructed. This unprotected clay base was open for many months to rainfall and the elements wthout any protection whatsoever on the site except for a small black silt fence (see below photo) located at the bottom of the scorched earth on the critical upper slopes just above the treeline.
Shown above is the unprotected critical slope above (north) of the treeline, "protected" only by a small black silt fence until late September, 2006. Runoff from this slope eventually made its way down to Wagley Creek.
The view above is the southernmost portion of the Timber Ridge Plat, located just above (north) of the woodland buffer that separated Wagley Creek from the clay runoff of the ongoing construction. The little black silt fencing is all that protected Wagley from the rain, construction and other detrimental impacts from the time the first tree was felled and the ground was broken, all through the summer of 2006 until late September, when black plastic was laid on the lower hillside. At the bottom of that hillside (see other photos below) was a newly-constructed third roadway which was never part of the approved Timber Ridge plat, and -- again -- the only protection from August's and September's heavy rainfall was the original black silt fence, much worse for wear, but still there. Sort of.
ABOVE:
Heavy machinery used to construct a "Who Knows?" Road
(not included or approved on the preliminary plat) on TR's southern
edge. The small (but courageous!) black silt fenceing -- if you look
really close, you can see it-- looks pretty darn silly and useless
now -- just like Sultan's respect for both the environment, its own
codes and state and federal laws.
October, 2006 Update: During a visit by a DOE (Dept. of Ecology) Water
Quality expert Greg Stegman, he met with Tim Albers and Neil Latta on
the Timber Ridge construction site, and with Garth York on Steen Park's
site. Mr. Stegman was told that the brown waters of Wagley were due
to "other" construction projects "upstream" from
theirs. This was echoed by Mayor Tolson recently in response to a city
resident's inquiry on the reasons for pollution. Mr. Tolson stated his
belief that the brown runoff was due to "some construction project
in the area of 132nd on the east side of Sultan." We assume he
was referring to the County's replacement of a Wagley culvert just south
of 132nd street on Rice Road (339th S.E.). While we cannot comment on
how much damage the county's construction job may have added to the
Brown Water Issue, we will say this: The county culvert project began
8/30 and was completed 9/14 or 9/15. The waters of Wagley have run brown
since the first rainfall this summer, worsening with each subsequent
flow.
Below-Left - Runoff from clay base during September rainfall on upper slopes of TR, approx. 5 feet east of the Sultan Basin roadway on the critical upper slope area. Below-right: Wagley Creek after it flows underneath Sultan Basin Road (photo taken at SBR's westside guardrail, facing westward, on 9/21, one day following heavy rainfall).
BELOW PHOTOS: Wagley Creek at Dyer Road bridge the day after the Sept. 20, 2006 rainfall. This photo shows flow at Dyer, located approximately 1/2-mile south of both the Steen Park and Timber Ridge construction site where it flows underneath the Dyer Rd. bridge. Photos and digital video (not yet posted) were taken October 19, 2006 showing a high and strong-flowing, milk-chocolate-colored water. The Dyer bridge is located only a few feet above where it flows into the Skykomish River. (See the DNR map used by Snohoco, to see the close proximity of the Dyer crossing to the Skykomish. This Dyer crossing, and its close proximity to the Skykomish (within 100-200 feet), is shown on the pdf file as a heavy-dotted green circle; the heavy RED DOTTED SQUARE displays the general location of the Steen Park/Timber Ridge construction sites, and the PINK ARROW on the far right side of the map indicates the county's culvert project which shut down Rice Road from 8/30 thru 9/15.)
(page last updated December 28, 2006)