Re: “To fix Puget Sound, fix the streams that feed it” (Insight, 4-13).
Finally, expert opinion to back up the outcry from Northeast Tacoma. The controversy regarding the massive proposed development of North Shore Golf Course is about more than taking away private views. It’s about preserving our environment.
As professionally explained by Jamie Glasgow, director of science and research of the Wild Fish Conservancy, the headwaters of Joe’s Creek begin on the course. It drains into Puget Sound at Dumas Bay and supports sea-run cutthroat trout and coho salmon.
This is a fragile, salmon-bearing habitat that state and city agencies spent nearly $1.6 million recently to clean up and improve and is just now reaping rewards.
As Glasgow states, these agencies are here to protect our streams from adverse impacts, yet inaccurate maps and incomplete data are sometimes used to make permitting decisions. Unbelievable.
One has to look at the “green development” of Cooper Crest in West Olympia. If Soundbuilt Homes cannot get it right with 100 homes, how can it possibly with 860 plus?
Look at Soundbuilt’s many Department of Ecology permit violations at Cooper Crest. What happens if the North Shore project begins, Joe’s Creek is contaminated and the balance of this delicate ecosystem is upset? What good will it do to slap some fines on the project? The damage will have already been done.
The cities of Tacoma and Federal Way need to wake up to this potential environmental nightmare. Anything less is a recipe for disaster. Then my question will be, who will pay for the cleanup?
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