Cowlitz County Adopts Stormwater Plan
On September 13th 2011 the Commissioners of Cowlitz County adopted the revised version of the NPDES Phase II Stormwater Permit. The form in which the permit was adopted was a victory for developers, builders, home owners and citizens of Cowlitz County. We celebrate this victory with the belief that we were able to make the ordinance less onerous on the citizens of our county. But was it enough? The original version of the permit was fraught with unreasonable, unnecessary and extreme language that highlighted the Dept of Ecology’s goal to further cripple affordable housing and our economy. The ordinance in its original and revised form is an all out attack on our private property rights and we MUST continue to fight the Dept of Ecology. Our original request to our commissioners was asking them to not pass the ordinance. Since this was not an option in the eyes of the commissioners, we were forced to capitulate. We began the process of challenging the permit in April of this year. One of the goals of the association in 2011 was to focus our efforts at the local level regarding regulatory impacts on our industry. A small group of contractors and concerned citizens started attending weekly commissioners meetings and it was at these meetings that we learned of our local government intentions of passing the NPDES permit. LCCA member Cary Butler of Butler Construction Services took it upon himself to learn as much as he could about the permit and he spent countless hours dissecting the language of the manual and permit. He became the resident expert regarding the language of the permit and was pointing out the numerous mistakes and flaws at the weekly meetings. Commissioner Raiter appointed a staff person to attend the meetings in order to answer the questions that Mr. Butler and others were posing. During this process the commissioners recognized that there were too many issues with the language of the permit to effectively deal with them in the limited time allotted during the commissioners meetings. LCCA Board of Director Keith Huff of Utilize IT requested that they schedule a public workshop to allow the necessary time. Over 50 local citizens attended this workshop. As the result of the public workshop the commissioners held a total of five continuing public hearings. Mr. Butler also requested help from the BIAW to assist with the language of the permit. Julie Nichols (Land Use Attorney) attended two meetings and worked with Patrick Harbison (staff) on the applicability section of the ordinance. Her guidance and counsel were critical to our success. During the fourth public hearing we were informed that the Dept of Ecology has drafted yet another revision to the permit. The language in the new DOE permit is beyond reason and belief. At this point we decided we needed to contact our local State Representatives and Senators. We are currently meeting with the Representatives and Senators from the 18th and 19th districts to gain support for the upcoming legislative session. One of our goals is to implement a 5 year moratorium on any new revisions to the permit. If we are able to accomplish this it will buy us time to fight the DOE and their unwanted regulations. This new draft impacts Kelso, Longview and the entire county. CALL TO ACTION! We need help from all members of the LCCA. If you don’t think this ordinance will impact you, you are mistaken! The attacks from the DOE will continue. If we sit back and do nothing our private property rights will continue to erode. The battle will continue with the help of our county commissioners, staff, landowners, homeowners and especially members of the LCCA. What we learned from this process is that we can have a collaborative effort with our local government to fight unnecessary regulations. Thanks to all the people that worked so diligently in combating the extremism being mandated by our state government. Please call Kurt Henthorn President of the LCCA if you all willing to help in any way. He can be reached at 360-430-3117. 

 For more information or to register please contact Jeanette Scibelli at 360-425-8820.

 

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