From Cindy Beckett, Watershed Steward – regarding the 208th Street development

There is a great deal of confusion on this issue.  The below letter from Ecology clearly says “Frederickson 40 warehouse project.”  The person I spoke with at the USACE (US Army Corps of Engineers or AC) said it was for warehouses and industrial buildings.  The AC did NOT say Sierra Pacific sawmill!  When I first spoke to the USACE, they said the original app where they reviewed the wetland categories was for a warehouse project, and not a full scale sawmill.  HOWEVER, today I did locate the 2013-14 inclusion of this lumber operation, so must assume what I was told by the USACE was incorrect. Or, they were not told of the plan to destroy every natural water resource on the north side and make phony, artificial wetlands on the south side to “mitigate” the total, irreversible losses of the people’s water resources.  All north wind will carry all contamination fallout known to come from these sawmills directly onto these new “wetlands”, so why bother?

Did the Frederickson LUAC approve this?

Shades of 1950!!!  Who needs our natural water systems anyway, if they stand in the way of profit!  Just like straightening the Puyallup River – the worst decision ever made by so-called intelligent “leaders”.  Wetlands in your way?  Just get rid of them.

This of course never was intended to be a public issue for the people to voice their concerns anyway.  We were never meant to have a voice in any of this.  That must be why there were never any public notice signs posted and no one living around this site was ever sent a letter of notification of what was about to befall them.  Noise pollution, air pollution, water loss, water pollution.  Contamination everywhere.  The track record of violations against SPI were completely ignored, and the health of the people was not ever a consideration.

This is what our beloved “executive” wants for the people living who will forever be living under this shadow?  Not to mention the loss of value of their properties now – who would buy a home for their family in a toxic fallout sawmill zone?

What a mess!  There will be no way to keep this deadly contamination out of the SSA.  They know this, too.  Creating artificial wetlands off site will not stop the contamination of our aquifer from this site mill.  It will, however, enrich a select few.  I guess that’s all that counts.

There are numerous copies of correspondence regarding the acknowledgement of the wetlands, and the mitigation required.  I have downloaded nearly all of them and have them in a folder, available if anyone wants them.

Nowhere in all the correspondence I have read so far where the people living in the pollution fallout area were notified, and there were no public notice signs posted anywhere on either side of 208th.  *** a stand of, if I recall correctly, 28 OAK TREES was also acknowledged to be onsite.  There are no oak trees left on the north side, if that is where they were originally.  There was a lot of acknowledgement of all the wetlands even by the USACE.  Mitigation for the wetlands will apparently be to destroy all wetlands and the stream (the stream on the north side will be train track bed) and create “new” wetlands on the south side.  That is their idea of mitigation.  That was not reviewed by the AC since the wetlands were not connected to Clover Creek anymore.  More importantly, it was not reviewed by the people because they did not want the people to know until it was too late.  What the AC did not acknowledge, solely because it was not within their authority, was that all the “too small to protect” wetlands were a much larger system made into pieces by prior land use.

Why would Pierce County be so willing to allow the complete destruction of the people’s water resource lands? They placed artificial zoning on a paper map over that property with the view to do exactly what they did.  They claimed all wetlands on the north side were not valuable to the people, would ruin the historic, natural aquifer recharge and hydric presence and destroy them because they are in the way of $$$, would destroy the Oak trees that are supposed to be protected, then “just make new wetlands somewhere else”.  And that is supposed to make us feel better somehow.  I assume they knew the people would have something to say about a polluting, contaminating sawmill operation in their neighborhoods, so did not bother to assure the public notice signs were ever posted and there were no public hearings.  They also seem to believe that “minimizing” the toxic impacts to the citizenry would be better than full-on toxic impacts?   Even though they are supposed to protect the resources of the people, it is only important if those resources are not in the way of private profit?

Now, I have to go beck to Ecology to find out who from their end came up with this “mitigation” plan to destroy all of the natural wetlands and groundwater and just make artificial ones off site.  Them or the county?

We expected better than this of our paid staff.  I don’t know why!  We should know better by now.  We are just supposed to pay all wages and benefits, shut up and go away.
If people around there get sick, too bad, so sad.  Hope you have good medical insurance.  What an attitude!  I hope all of the surrounding residential areas have a good supply of earplugs, too.

The braniac plan below is to destroy all wetlands on the north side of 208th, create artificial wetlands on the south side of 208th, and lay a rail line on top of the stream on the north side.

[Images will be uploaded later when the email properly transmits them]

How far will the wind carry the contamination?

Iteration #1
Iteration #1 was developed to avoid the most impacts to wetlands, regardless of compliance with other local, state, or federal regulations. Unfortunately, this site layout does not meet the finished lumber storage needs of proposed project; it does not provide the most efficient or functional use of site layout; it does not provide the safest layout (i.e. trucks moving logs from the log yard to the mill travel near areas where employees are and must travel through tight spaces); nor does it comply with numerous regulations, including Pierce County code requirements for fire safety (e.g. building separation, etc.).

Iteration # 2
Iteration #2 was developed because air quality modeling showed that the location of the dry kilns and cogeneration facility in Iteration #1 would not meet state regulations (WAC 173-460) for toxic air pollutants. Therefore the dry kiln and cogeneration facility were relocated to an area where their emissions and the prevailing wind direction would minimize risk to air quality. Based on the air quality modeling, there is no alternative location for these structures. The location of these structures will result in unavoidable wetland impacts. Additionally, moving these buildings resulted in the need to
relocate other buildings to provide an efficient, functional, and safe use of the site. Similar to Iteration #1, this site layout does not meet the finished lumber storage needs of proposed project; it does not provide the most efficient or functional use of site layout; it does not provide the safest layout (i.e. trucks moving logs from the log yard to the mill travel near areas where employees are and must travel through tight spaces); nor does it comply with numerous regulations, including Pierce County code requirements for fire safety (e.g. building separation, etc.).

Frederickson Industrial Park WETLAND MITIGATION PLAN

6/22/14 FREDERICKSON INDUSTRIAL PARK WETLAND MITIGATION PLAN
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) is in the process of acquiring properties in the Frederickson, Washington, urban growth area to develop an industrial park. The specific purpose of this proposed development is to create manufacturing jobs in this Employment Center (EC) as defined under Pierce County Code (PCC) 18A.10.080(A).
***what is the total of new jobs created at this mill?  10?  15?  And we lost all of this critical area for that? And endangered all the people living around there just for that?
It is not justified at all.

Below just a couple of examples – all parties acknowledged wetlands on the north side, but none of them were saved.  In the files I downloaded, it also shows that the USACE listed high water table throughout and wetland vegetation including reed canary grass – which does not grow except in water.
***high groundwater table was confirmed at every location!  Who cares, right?  If it is in the way of profit, the water goes every time.  Artificially created wetlands are NOT mitigation.

[IMAGES unavailable – will try to get them uploaded when they come through email properly]

STARKEL 40 ACRES CRITICAL AREA STUDY
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) has applied for permits to develop an industrial park in Frederickson, Washington urban growth area.
Because part of the development would have an impact on wetland resources, a potential mitigation site across from the project site has been identified. The site is located on the south side of 208th street, across from the project site (Tax parcels 0318111001 and 0318111002) (Figure 1).  On March 3, 4 and 10, 2014 Confluence Environmental Company (Confluence) conducted a site visit to the potential mitigation site to characterize any critical areas. The properties are entirely within the Frederickson Community Plan area (PCC 18A.22).

Cindy Beckett
Master Watershed Steward
no water – no life
The health of the people Depends directly on the Health of their watershed