Dry Creek Coalition

DCC Minutes 9 April 2008

Minutes of the DCC Board meeting of 9 April 2008.

DCCMin9Apr08pdf.pdf

Dry Creek Comprehensive Plan Revision Remains In Limbo

Letters to Director of Community Development, Mr John Miller and Clallam County Commissioner Mike Doherty remain unanswered in regard to the status of the Dry Creek revised Comprehensive Plan submitted in August 2006.
DCC has now sent a letter to the Clallam County Planning Commission requesting their assistance in resolving this impasse.
That letter is contained below:

PlanComltrMay08.pdf
CompPlnDohertyltr.pdf
CompPlnMillerltr.pdf

DCC Presentation to Port Angeles City Council

DCC presented a “latest status” on the Port Angeles City Dump at the 20 May 2008 council meeting
Survey of offshore rock and cobble was conducted at low tide on 8 May 2008 by DCC members.
The results of that survey were dramatic in that the area is basically devoid of all marine animal life:  mollusks, starfish, barnacles, bottom crabs, etc.  The comparison to marine life at Freshwater Bay is dramitically different.
DCC Pollicy remains the same as that stated in our 12 October 2005 testimony to the Port Angeles City Planning Commission, i.e., the 1,000,000 cubic yards of garbage in the “old” section of unlined dump should be removed and sent to toxic materials dumps.
Testimony to the Port Angeles City Council is contained below.

CityCouncilMay08.pdf

PA Dump-Cross Section Two Versions

The following page shows two Cross Sections of the Port Angeles City Dump.  The first is in 2002 and was done by Parametrix in an engineering study.
The second is the same cross section filed with the SEPA for the retaining wall project in 2005.  Important to note:  Somehow about 2/3 of the garbage disappeared between 2002 and 2005.
Could it have been someone’s eraser??
With a perfection of this technique the whole world could be cleaned up with just a single eraser. Yellow area in lower figure added to show “lost” garbage.

DumpCrossSectDiagMay08.pdf

Port Angeles City Dump Toxic Materials

The City of Port Angeles unlined dump on the bluff of the Strait of Juan de Fuca contains 1,000,000 cubic yards of garbage some of which has fallen and leached into the marine waters of the Strait.
Dry Creek Coalition has assembled data for several years through Request for Disclosure from the Clallam County Environmental Health Divisiion and the City of Port Angeles Public Works Department.  Pictures contained in this package are of Dry Creek Coalition origination.  Additional pictures are contained in the Galleries Section of our web site.  DCC testified to the City of Port Angeles Planning Commission on 12 October 2005 that the garbage in the unlined dump should be removed and disposed of in a toxic landfill.  City Engineer Gary Kenworthy, now retired, stated that the dump contained 1,000,000 cubic yards and that removal was cost prohibitive.  The City of Port Angeles filed a SEPA finding a Determination of Non-Significance (DNS) environmental impact for building a retaining wall to prevent garbage from falling into the Strait as the bluffs erode.

Highlights of the pdf package below are contained on the first three pages of the attachment.  The remainder of the package is documentation of dump issues and include:

An analysis of city generated assay of the garbage in the unlined garbage dump consisting of thousands of tons of lead, zinc, copper and substances toxic to marine life.
City engineering studies which show lack of concern for violating the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) jurisdictional Mean Highest High Waterline (MHHW) boundary for construction.
A letter from USACE citing the City of Port Angeles for violation of Federal Clean Water Act
Letter to Governor Gregoire regarding toxic leaching into the Strait
Letter to Department of Ecology regarding dumping stormwater from the dump into the mouth of Dry Creek
Letter to the Department of Fish and Wildlife with concerns for the Hydrologic Permit issued for construction that damaged Dry Creek flow

This package was delivered to the Puget Sound Partnership at the Workshop at the Jamestown Tribal Center in 7 March 2008
This is the first half of the package given to PSP and Port Angeles City Council

PADumpPkg1of2.pdf

This is the second half of the Port Angeles Dump package presented to PSP and Port Angeles City Council
PADumpPkg2of2.pdf

DCC Gerald Steel ltr to Clallam Community Development Laird’s East & West

Tis letter is critical to understanding the Dry Creek Community concerns for preservation of rural character and residential tranquility for our neighborhood.
There is a lot of background information which shows how poorly zoning and long term planning are accomplished in Clallam County.  In a nut shell, the Clallam County Community Development planners disregarded the State Legislatures direction in handling Growth Management Issues and “ignored the law” regarding setting LAMIRD boundaries based upon 1 July 1990 existing conditions.  When called to account, they use tax payer funds to try to cover over their poor planning practices.

DCCGSLtrCD13Jul07.pdf

Futurewist LAMIRD PreBrief for Hearing 11 March 2008

The attached is the Futurewise Pre Brief for the Western Board of Growth Management Hearing

Futurwise_PreBrief.pdf

DCC Reply Brief for LAMIRD Hearing

The DCC Reply Brief was filed just prior to the Western Washington Growth Management Hearing Board Hearing of 11 March 2008.
This document gives a real sense of the issues as seen from the Coalition perspective.  Be sure to read pages13, 14 and 15 of the brief if you read no others.

DCCReplyBriefLAMIRDHrg.pdf

Dry Creek Comprehensive Plan

Dry Creek community began a revision of that portion of the Clallam County Comprehensive Plan relating to Dry Creek in early 2005.
Our plan update was submitted to Clallam County Department of Community Development in August 2006.
This Comprehensive Plan update was to have been placed upon the Clallam County Planning Commission Agenda for 2007.
Our Dry Creek update remains in limbo despite requests to Mr John Miller and Commissioner Mike Doherty requesting that they expedite the update.
Mr Miller and Commissioner Doherty have made no response to our letters to-date.

Letter to Mr. Miller
CompPlnMillerltr.pdf

Letter to Commissioner Doherty
CompPlnDohertyltr.pdf

Sprint Boat Racing Ltr to Port of Port Angeles

The DCC sent a letter to Mr   Jeff Robb with copy to Port of Port Angeles Executive Director endorsing Sprint Boat racing on the Critchfield property and requesting that the port consider use of the property for community uses rather than the heavy industrial useage they desire.  The letter states the various types of useage desired by DCC but does not signify endorsement by various interested organizations for their activities.

PDFOutput.pdf

Sprint Boat Meeting

Meeting was held in the basement of the Dry Creek Grange on Friday, 2 May 2008 at the request of Mr Dan Morrison, Mr Randy Alderson, and Mr & Mrs Don Zozosky.  This group proposes construction of a 2 acre water course for Sprint Boat races on the 113 acre Critchfield property owned by the Port of Port Angeles.

A group of neighbors and Coalition members discussed the Sprint Boat proposal and viewed DVD of actual events held in Washington State.
We were informed that the course utilized 3 foot deep by 15 foot wide water filled ditches for racing events.
Only two events were planned for the year, 5 July and 20 September 2008.  Events would be held during daylight hours only.

Membership expressed concern for the wetlands of the Critchfield property and told the Sprint Boat representatives that we would not support flooding the race waterways with water from the Dry Creek and that we did not want adverse impact upon the wetland areas.

A poll of members indicated that DCC Board and community membership would support Sprint Boat races on the Critchfield property.
A letter would be drafted and sent to the Port of Port Angeles regarding our support.

DCC Board Minutes for12 March 2008

Minutes of the DCC monthly Board meeting are contained below.
DCCMin12Mar08.doc

DCC LAMIRD Reply Brief

This Document is part of the Western Board of Growth Management Hearing regarding Laird’s East and West LAMIRD.
It is well worth the read to get the reasons for the Hearing from DCC standpoint. The issues stated in the Peninsula Daily News were not the real issues.

DCCReplyBriefLAMIRDHrg.pdf