| Outside the Lines: Ferry Tales XXXXVIIII Some
of the People When Ron Panzero called on Saturday morning to say there was about 30 pounds of Environmental Assessment Report to be included as a public resource at the Guemes Library, I chuckled at the obvious exaggeration. Ron was not far off, however. There were pounds and pounds of the same old letters, reports, newspaper articles, surveys, GIFC election results, comments, and court data. There is page after page of legalese that has been seen before. Very few of those 1000+ pages divulged new information. Even fewer of those pages addressed our single source aquifer or ground water issues in any new way. Judge Allendoerfer's ruling was very clear about Skagit County stepping up and accepting the responsibility to address ground water and its associated impacts from the Guemes Ferry extended runs. This responsibility has been shunned for over ten years. Ignoring the significance of this impact does not make it go away. Blaming “improper well design” and specific location of wells as a reason for high chloride counts - salt water intrusion -is a cop out. Hopefully, such a shoddy EA won’t fly in Allendoerfer’s court room. The consequences for this lack of follow through could include a total moratorium on wells and building on Guemes*. The BOCC couldn’t possibly want that because it would potentially limit new property taxes. The ground water study should have been done before any Determination of Non Significance was issued. The word “study” is important. What the County did was print old info and put it into a “white paper report”. The intern who did the copying may have read some of this information but it is doubtful if anyone else has, or will. When Gary Christenson sat in the Guemes Island Communitiy Center and said he would be back to Guemes with results on the input for/against the extended hours, I was not convinced. When he said public comment would be encouraged at that time, I was skeptical. But the new smiling faces encouraged me to give them the benefit of the doubt. Silly me! Commentary by MJ Andrak, [5.12.8] "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." Attributed to Abraham Lincoln.
"A 14-day public comment period on the DNS ends at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 22nd. The DNS available for review...provides requirements for the submittal of written comments. - Skagit County Planning and Development Services Send a message to the Commissioners, Public Works Director and ferry manager.
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