OPINION Potable water, drinking water to you and me, is critical to all life on earth. In Pierce County, that water comes from glacier melt or rain. It is taken from rivers, lakes, and aquifers underground. In Washington State there is currently not anyone desalinizing sea water for use, although Florida, Texas, and California do….
Category: Utilities
Clover Creek setbacks issue in Lakewood project, hearing Feb. 21, 11am, Lakewood City Hall
Sean ArentOrganizing Committee for Clover Creek Restoration Action Alliance Dear Residents of the Clover-Chambers Creek Watershed and Allies, We are the Clover Creek Restoration Action Alliance, watershed residents and allies who are fed up with the destruction of our natural resources and are organizing to fight back. Here are three things we could use your…
Mistakes were made, a water battle looms
By Marianne Lincoln In 1931, Pierce County Drainage District 20 built a ditch. This ditch drained the farms to the west of 47th Avenue between 128th Street and 112th Street. At the time, the really wasn’t a 47th Avenue, but the LaForge Farm was there since 1915 along with the Andre Farm to the North…
House demolition, but no silt fence
By Marianne Lincoln Spanaway is watching. There is already a high level of concern about how the Tiny Home Village project was dropped on our community. There are lawyers being paid to defend the interests of people living on the lake self-taxing to improve water quality. Then this project comes along and threatens to make…
PSM-LUAC Nov. 15, 6:30pm, Sprinker !!
By Cindy Beckett This will be heard at the Parkland-Spanaway-Midland Advisory Commission public meeting date is November 15, 2023, at 6:30 p.m. at Sprinker Recreation Center. (Remember, you will hike a distance to get in from parking due to construction right now.) The Land Use Advisory Commission will be reviewing the homeless village project now labeled…
To the last drop
Editorial: Marianne Lincoln When you elect a developer, to the position of County Executive, what do you get? First, it was the “City of Pierce” proposal to take the unincorporated part of mid-Pierce County and turn it into a high-density rectangular race-track of high-rise housing, 2016. The communities affected were so ticked off they formed…
Pacific Ave. lane closures for sewer at 129th St.
Parkland/Brookdale Sewer Interceptor Phase 3 Update As part of Pierce County’s Parkland/Brookdale Sewer Interceptor project, traffic on state Route 7 at 129th Street South will be partially closed during: For the first weekend from July 28 to 31, crews will work on section C1 along the west side of SR 7. The southbound SR 7 traffic…
Letter: Waughop Lake’s Demise Assured
By Don Russell, Lakewood A Significant and Questionable EventOn May 4, 2023 the City of Lakewood requested proposals for professional services from qualified contractors for the purpose of an alum treatment for algae control in Waughop Lake. The alum treatment prescribed in this RFP is for the application of aluminum sulfate (alum) and sodium aluminate. …
Pierce County needs to use more caution with our water resources
By Cindy BeckettEPA certified Watershed Manager, WSU certified Master Watershed Steward Why are we still losing our water resources in this county? “They” claim we must build housing fast enough to meet the need – to be precise, our share of the claimed 1.1 million homes the State says we (all counties together) need to add in the next 20 years, according…
Local water – Guest editorial
By Cindy BeckettEPA certified Watershed Manager Response to Water, water isn’t always everywhere, there’s nary a drop to drink The loss of fresh water in our county has reached dangerous, irretrievable levels. Nothing can live without water – nothing. Believe it or not, even rocks require water or they turn to sand. Yet much of our…
Water, water isn’t always everywhere, there’s nary a drop to drink
By Marianne Lincoln Land use planning meets sole source aquifer and the fight is on The Pierce County communities of Midland, Summit, Waller, Parkland Spanaway Frederickson, Graham, Elk Plain and South Hill along with Lakewood and University Place have one thing in common, they sit on a sole source aquifer. That means, their only supply…
Before the March 21 meeting to approve a large homeless micro-village in the wetlands near Spanaway Lake…
By Marianne Lincoln Act before, not just at, the meeting, Write to your councilmember; write to all of them. If you think it is a bad idea to tear down trees shading a large Federal wetland that feeds into Spanaway Lake, Coffee Creek, Spanaway Creek, Morey Creek, Clover Creek, Chambers Creek, Chambers Bay and then…
Bolt out of the blue – Boom!
By Marianne Lincoln It was late evening, January 18, 2023. Connie Wilbur was sitting in her rec room recliner when, “Boom!” the sound of an explosion ripped through the room. The power went off, so she grabbed a flashlight and a coat and took a look outside. Things looked basically normal, but in the daylight,…
Crisis for critical Spanaway watershed
By Marianne Lincoln The chatter in environmental circles is intense. The concern is removal of a large number of huge trees and the ensuing ground heat on the watershed entering Spanaway Lake from the marsh and streams to the southwest of it. Impervious surface and water system pollution are the concerns. The Tiny Home Village…
Comments by County Reviewers of the Tiny Homes Project in Spanaway
[Editor: This is information from the project site at Planning and Land Services and these are comments by County employees who are moving the project along as part of their jobs. Those of you who may want to make public comments, may find some of their comments useful information from which to ask questions.] Reviewer…
9:30 a.m. January 3, Planning Commission meeting on Spanaway Tiny Home Village Zoning Change
Yes, maybe you got a post card about the meeting 1/3/23, at Sprinker at 7p.m., where the County will tell you what they did after the fact. But better yet, get to this Special Meeting of the Pierce County Planning Commission earlier in the same day at the Annex, 2401 S. 35th St. Tacoma, WA…
Parkland area sewer closures
From Pierce County Planning and Public Works:C Street South between Tule Lake Road and 128th Street to close Aug. 29 Work on C Street South between Tule Lake Road and 128th Street South (Section B) will resume on Monday, Aug. 29. The contractor working for Pierce County on the Parkland/Brookdale Sewer Interceptor Phase 3 project suspended work for…
Stream activist lament
Opinion By Don Russell [Acronyms defined at the end of the article] Derek and Janet, I am now 92 years old and don’t have much time left. I have witnessed, photo documented, water quantity and water quality monitored, written numerous papers on the condition of the CCSS watershed, prescribed the actions necessary to restore the…
Common Enemy Doctrine, Water law
Anyone who lives along a lake, river creek or stream needs to be aware of these laws regarding waterways. Currens v. Sleek,, September 9, 1999, Case No. 66830-2, Washington State Supreme Court determined that liability exists for anyone who causes damage to another’s property by increasing surface water flow onto that other property without exercising…
SEPA – when it really matters, or does it?
By Marianne Lincoln [Podcast link] [Editor Update: [Editor Update: Wetland Variance, Tommy’s Carwash, Application Number: 979272Related Application Numbers: 958554 and 975551Tax Parcel Numbers: 0319121055, 0319121057 and 0319121058Examiner’s Hearing: March 30, 2022, at 9 A.M., at the Pierce County Public Services Building,South Entrance, Public Meeting Room, 2401 South 35th Street, Tacoma, WA 98409.] SEPA is an…