If you haven't already done so, your attention right now needs to be on providing written comment on Snohomish County's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Scope for its proposed Point Wells development project. The Comment Period ends today, March 3, at 5:00pm.
Please, do not let yourselves be distracted by the advocacy group spinoff being peddled by the Richmond Beach Community Association.Once you have submitted your written comments, then by all means, check it out.
I delivered the same caution at last month's RBCA meeting, which contained an hour-long pitch for this new subgroup of theirs, which they chose to do right on the eve of the first workshop for the City's Point Wells Transportation Corridor Study. Like many of you, I went to that meeting hoping to hear about the workshop: what to expect and how best to prepare. The meeting was a great disappointment, as was the City's Open House in January, and its first 2 Transportation Corridor Study workshops in February.
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To repeat, the deadline for submitting Environmental Impact Statement Scoping Comments To Snohomish County is Monday, March 3, at 5:00 pm. This means you still have time to submit written comment.
Snohomish County fouls up their Point Wells project pages and links
Snohomish County has recently made some website changes that make the process of providing scoping comment more difficult. In short, they moved their Point Wells project page and provided non-working email links:
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1. Snohomish County moved their Point Wells project webpage. The original URL, which was also published in their Determination of Significance and Request for Comments on Scope of EIS (Local File Number 11-101457 LU) was http://www1.co.snohomish.wa.us/Departments/PDS/Divisions/Permitting/Point_Wells.htm. Well, that link no longer takes you to the intended page. Now it redirects you to the Snohomish County home page: http://www.snohomishcountywa.gov/, so it is less than useless. Fear not. I found the webpage for their planning department, and from there, found the new location for the Point Wells project webpage: http://www.snohomishcountywa.gov/1511/Point-Wells.
2. There are two ways to provide your comment by email. Either send your email to a Point Wells address or directly to the Snohomish County project manager. The links for both are on the Point Wells project webpage, but guest what? Neither work. The Point Wells email address is the 'Submit Comments' link, but is incorrectly written as "email:%20SCD-Point%20Wells", which is total garbage. I have no idea what the correct email address is. The other option is to submit your comments to is the Snohomish County Point Wells Project Manager. His name is Darryl Eastin. You will find a link to email him located on the Point Wells project page. However, it is also a bad link. The link points to a bogus address of "email:%20Darryl.Eastin@snoco.org.". If you click either link, you will get a 'page not found' message. His correct email address is darryl.eastin@snoco.org.
3. Now, If you wish to comment, the document you need to read first is the one titled
Determination of Significance and Request for Comments on Scope of EIS. You will find it under 'Related Links' on the Snohomish County Point Wells project webpage. There are also other documents on the webpage you may wish to reference.
4. The State of Washington SEPA website (which nobody mentions) provides very good guidance on the SEPA process, and how to write your comments on both the EIS Scope (due March 3 at 5:00 pm) and the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The guidance can be found here: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/sepa/citizenGuidance.html
5. A well-kept secret is that neither Snohomish County's EIS or Shoreline's Transportation Corridor Study address the mandatory environmental cleanup of the Point Wells site. If you have been following Point Wells closely, you have heard repeatedly that Snohomish County is the lead agency for the SEPA EIS. That is true, but misleading. Theirs is a construction project. Their EIS assumes that Point Wells is already an environmentally clean site, which it is not. It assumes the site has already been cleaned and is environmentally fit for construction. There will be another EIS for the cleanup project. The lead agency for that EIS is the Department of Ecology, not Snohomish County. I have no idea when that EIS will begin. Both Snohomish County and the City of Shoreline will confirm this information, but will not volunteer it.
6. Another closely guarded secret is that your legal remedies may be severely limited if you do not provide comment. If your concern is about the EIS scope, you better get your comments in today, if you have not already done so.
