Clover Creek and Spanaway Lake resister the first day or so, but now that this weather has been dipping below 15 degrees F for several days, the north part of Spanaway Lake, known as the cove is starting to freeze. It is truly thin ice that no one can stand on, but it has frozen…
Category: Waterfront
Can we save Clover Creek?
By Marianne Lincoln On January 4, a group of advocates and landowners along Clover Creek met at the Parkland Spanaway Library to talk about how to improve the creek and stop hurting it. Much work is yet to be done as far as setting up a solid organization to move forward, but the list produced…
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…
Watershed local project grants available
PIERCE COUNTY — 3-24-23 Pierce County is partnering with watershed councils, local nonprofits and agencies to fund a small grants program supporting community projects that improve habitat and water quality across the county. The 2023 cycle will award more than $70,000 total to projects in four watersheds: Key Peninsula-Gig Harbor-Islands, Chambers-Clover Creek, Puyallup-White River, and…
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…
Jan. 9, 7pm, Environmental Compliance Webinar for Tiny Home Village
From newsletter of Councilmember Jani Hitchen, Jan. 5, 2023: ***Pierce County Village Update*** Many of you have reached out to my office about the proposed Pierce County Village currently sited in Spanaway. There have been a lot of questions, many of which I had myself. I share a link to a resolution below that I think may…
Tiny Home Village location proposed in Spanaway has controversial wetlands and zoning
First, please look at the link to the proposal in the Pierce County website. That way you will better understand what is happening. The proposed site has had a significant amount of planning, but little public input. It was unveiled on October 18, 2022 by the Pierce County Executive’s office, with a great deal of…
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…
Dire warnings on our watershed – dialogue
Several members of the Chambers Clover Watershed Council have been exchanging some very concerning emails recently. Based on their experience, credentials, and length of service in the stewardship capacity, these are worth your interest. (Cindy Beckett, Don Russell and Kurt Reidinger) Starting with a reply to Ms. Beckett’s email in the previous article, “Destruction of…
Destruction of this creek has always been illegal
A message from Cindy Beckett, EPA Watershed Manager, WSU Master Watershed Steward: I really do wish that everyone would finally understand this….. no elected “official” on the county or executive level, nor anyone on Pierce County staff, has any authority whatsoever over this creek system. I really mean this! Authority falls onto both the State…
Friends of Spanaway Lake Annual Meeting Feb. 24
The Friends of Spanaway Lake is holding their annual meeting on February 24, 2022, at 7 p.m. at Sprinker Recreation Center and virtually over Zoom. They have posted the event on Facebook if you are looking for the connection link. This past year, the property owners with front footage on the lake voted to create…
A disaster called Clover Creek
Since 1853, when Washington became a Territory, Clover Creek has been diverted, dammed, dug up, relocated, culverted, drilled back into the ground and had vast amounts of pollutants dumped into it. The creek was named by Christopher Mahon who settled a Donation Land Claim there, where the Brookdale Golf Course was later sited. Their home…
Spanaway Lakefront owners petition County for special assessment district
By Marianne Lincoln, 5-3-2021 The Friends of Spanaway Lake (FOSL) , a 501(c)(3) non-profit association of lakefront property owners, has drawn up a petition to the County Council to create a special Lake Management District (LMD). This Special taxing area would charge each lake lot owner between $4 to $8 per lakefront foot to help…
What is the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department?
With the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department’s existence in the balance this week, you may have a lot of questions about who they are, what they do, and how much it all costs. Unless you have needed their services, you may not be aware of all the things your local Health Department does in Pierce…
Input on Milroy Bridge Replacement
Pierce County seeks public input on project to replace Milroy Bridge PIERCE COUNTY — The community can provide input about potential environmental impacts of a project to build a new bridge from Canyon Road East across the Puyallup River into the City of Fife via an online open house through Aug. 7. The bridge project…
County Committee looking at condemnations on North Canyon Road and Spanaway Lake Management Plan updates
[UPDATE: The Pierce County Council has issued a notice of Continued final Council hearing on Proposal No. 2020-10. The Final Council hearing on this proposal is continued to April 21, 2020, at 3:00 pm. The final Council hearing will be held in Room 1045, County-City Building, 930 Tacoma Ave S, in Tacoma. ] * *…
But wait! Is it really decided? 208th St.
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. …
A mixed-use industrial facility on 208th
[Editor Note: This is a response received from the Department of Ecology about the wetlands and the Sierra Pacific Project between 200th and 208th Street] Thank you for contacting the Department of Ecology regarding the development in the Frederickson/Spanaway area. I understand your concerns and frustrations, but the information Ecology has given you previously is…