Illahee Outfall Appeal DENIED - 2/8/08

We were hoping this would have been reported in the papers by now. We need to report it quickly because of the short appeal window should the community want to take this to the next level.

Outfall Project Approved. The ILLAHEE OUTFALL REPLACEMENT has been approved by the Hearing Examiner.

Community Appeal Denied. APPEAL DENIED was the decision he rendered to the Port's and Citizen's efforts to question the County's decision to approve the outfall and the legacy lot projects.

Community Ignored. The Hearing Examiner agreed with the county and the developer on all counts, and discarded the issues brought up by the Port of Illahee and the Illahee Community.

Community Disappointment. This decision was a great disappointment to everyone we talked with. The common question, paraphrased, was: How can the county, who is supposed to be responsible for promoting health and welfare issues, continue to dump essentially untreated stormwater at the base of the Illahee community dock, where the public recreates and where people swim? (Note that the developer's engineer said it will be treated, but what they are doing is only removing suspended solids, and the technical term for that level of treatment is referred to as pre-treatment.)

Appeal to BOCC? The next decision is whether to appeal it to the next level, the Board of County Commissioners. The cost used to be $200 to file, but as of a week ago, it was raised to $500. Any appeal needs to be filed by February 19. 2008. We will be anxious to hear what the Port of
Illahee and the Illahee Community Club decides. Let them know your thoughts.

42 Inch Outfall. We received the attached photos that 1) show the existing 24 inch outfall, and then 2) a doctored up photo that shows what the second newly approved 42 inch outfall might look like.

1)

2)

Community Comments? Once this goes out by email it is later put on our website illaheecommunity.com where it can be accessed by clicking on "weblog" in the upper left hand corner. At the bottom of the update you can click on "comment" and add your own thoughts and see what others are saying. Our website group is hoping this will be a way for everyone to interact and see how the community feels about issues like this.

Jim Aho