By Marianne Lincoln, Editor

Another opinion, or three.

For my entire lifetime, I have lived in unincorporated Pierce County. Everyone here I know has always been cynical of the opinions of the New Tribune because they always seem to back up the opinions of the County or city of Tacoma officials and disregard the information of people actually living in the outer county.

Recently in The News Tribune, an opinion pierce dated October 19, 2023 is called: Critics say Pierce County’s homeless village would hurt the environment. That’s false | Opinion. The authors are John Comis and Michael Yoder. Yoder is the head of Associated Ministries. John Comis, it says, is a certified professional wetland scientist. Myself and my certified Master Watershed Steward friend Cindy, tried to find his actual wetland credentials. Does he have a real certified credential? Mr. Comis, exactly what besides 34 years of letting things go to hell in Pierce County are you doing for wetlands officially, credentialed and by the law, including Federal wetlands laws?

Apparently, this article was in response, like a pro/con, to the excellent article written by Claudia Finseth on September 26, 2023 called: We’re not opposed to helping. But Pierce County Village endangers this wetland | Opinion.

I am on the Chambers Clover Watershed Council. We just had a meeting with presentations on groundwater levels as below:
• Multi-year Patterns of Precipitation, Groundwater Levels, and Stream Flow in Clover Creek – Tom Kantz, Shuhui Dun, Scott Groce; Pierce County PPW SWM (Planning & Public Works Surface Water Management)
• USGS Groundwater Model/Clover Creek Data Collection – Tim Hagan, Pierce County PPW SWM

Here is the recording if you are curious about the declining groundwater levels shown in the data they presented. The group was concerned and suspicious that this was happening and their data confirmed there is a pattern of groundwater loss in addition to drought. We are concerned locally about what is happening to our surface, and slightly below surface, waters.

Here is what surface water experienced and credentialed local citizens had to say about the opinion:

Cindy Beckett, EPA certified Watershed Manager,  and WSU certified Master Watershed Steward:

“I saw that article, whatever qualifications they are claiming are to be questioned!  I say this because, above all else, Federal law prevails, even in WA and even in Pierce County.  As far as credentials, they apparently only learned about dirt and water but nothing else, or they would know these laws too.  They would also know that the shoreline wetlands where they thought they could just approve to turn into 100% impervious surface are also protected under several Federal therefore state therefore county laws.  I say this because they are on the GIS overlay for the county, and as you know, I won the argument that the county owns the GIS maps and can alter them at whim.  I already clarified that with the Fed.  The GIS flood hazard overlays belong to FEMA and are put there to advise of potential flooding.

They also need their very own copy of Judge Pechman’s ruling that there is NO deference to local government when Federal law prevails!!!

Someone needs to call their bluff, since if they don’t know these laws, the don’t know squat and certainly are not qualified to approve anything at that lake shoreline!  Part of the training to get the credentials they are pretending to have includes knowing that.  When the MMPA is added to this, which they also clearly don’t know, it is the final reason for denying this poorly thought out plan on this location.

Many other issues remain, one that was ruled on by the courts, is that the county RO must be involved right from the start.  WA lists Sean Gaffney as the RO (Responsible Official) for the county, and Sean knows the requirements of an RO.  He was supposed to contact all living near the shoreline of the lake, collect their concerns, take them back to his office to research the laws **and the science that address those concerns. Yet most of the folks living around the lake were never even notified, let alone given a voice.

Not only was Sean not there, no one from the county identified themselves as the RO to the public, and remained to collect all the written comments and concerns from the citizenry, then include all of that in his report back to the county.  I lay odds that on one will find an RO report on this, though.

This needs to be made public for sure.  I have all the info on RO’s, it is part of Environmental Justice under US EPA.

On top of that, no one, and I mean no one in this county has the authority to instruct others to ignore or dismiss the laws that protect that lakeshore.

They all need to be replaced if they are not doing the jobs they are paid to do.  Opinions are not part of BAS.  Fact and law is.

And Don Russell, 50+ year watershed steward

In response to the John Comis’ and Michael Yoder’s below pro Spanaway Marsh Village location propaganda piece appearing in a recent edition of The News Tribute, I would point out that the next epochal heavy prolonged precipitation event will submerge the proposed Spanaway Marsh Village site in several feet of groundwater flooding as described and depicted in the attached article and paper on this subject.  

This plus the vast asphalt coverage of wetland soil adverse heat sink effect on both the temperature and chemistry of the groundwater beneath the site and microclimate above the site in a sensitive wetland complex.  The wetland biologist cited appears ignorant of (or views incompatible with his narrative) these two adverse environmental impacts of siting an urban Village in Edmond Marsh.

Already water quality impaired Spanaway Lake will be the 24/7/365 recipient of thermal and chemical polluted groundwater and upon groundwater flooding trash polluted surface water that will flow from the asphalt covered and groundwater flooded Village site.

I suggest that all who oppose the siting of TRM’s Village in Spanaway Marsh as proposed by the Comis and Yoder propaganda piece, likely encouraged by the County Executive and his Legal Counsel, and with Comis’ service possibly funded by Pierce County citizen taxpayers or TMR, engage a reputable hydrogeologist to co draft with a member(s) of your respective organizations a rebuttal opinion piece for publication in The Tacoma News Tribune.