ADAGE Approval Process Fragmented in Mason County

The way the county is going about this approval process is leaving me feeling less than secure that our elected officials are looking out for our best interest. (See my blog "Staff Driven" dated Dec 19, 2009 for more on how Mason County really works.)

On April 6 I asked the Department of County Development (DCD) what the county process will be and what I heard is that it is going to be quite fragmented. DCD Planning will take the SEPA (State Environmental Protection Act) application. DCD Building will get a piece of it to issue permits for building construction. Public Works or County Roads will consider traffic and transportation issues.

And get this: the county commissioners have no rulings or public hearings. The one county public meeting that must be held is before the Hearing Examiner.

As of April 6 around 1030 am DCD Planning had not received the SEPA application. That's at the county level.

But at the regional level the focus will be less diffused. Accordingly, the ORCAA review is the best place for us to learn more about whether ADAGE will cause a degradation to our air quality. On April 5 on this blog I posted what I learned about the issue of air pollution and the involvement of ORCAA.

There are more questions than just about air quality that need to be answered. Do we have the water supply capacity to support this operation? A question for the city since the water will be supplied via the PUD 3 financed water line going out to the Port. What happens to the waste water - where will it go? Will the waste water harm shellfish production in Oakland Bay? What about the woods - will the removal of slash damage the forests in the long run? Where does the ash go after the woody bio mass is burned? If there isn't enough slash will ADAGE resort to burning trees? If there isn't enough woody bio mass then will we then allow this facility to burn garbage?

I'm really concerned that we are going to be guinea pigs because this will be the first plant of its kind built by this multinational firm. ADAGE is a joint effort by Duke Energy and AREVA, a French firm that is mainly involved in nuclear facilities.

Now is the time for us to be involved and learn all that we can. It's going to take some real attention from all of us to protect the environment and the economy.

I plan to attend meetings today, April 7 and will ask questions and post answers. Please check back for more on this.

Board of County Commissioners Meeting - Mar 2

All three of our county commissioners stayed for the entire meeting. Here's what I heard.

- There's a vacancy on the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee since Mike Carnavole resigned. Ross announced that they are looking for a new member who is involved in generating hotel/motel tax dollars.

- Mason County Parks and Trails Department Business Planning Task Force recommendations were on the consent agenda. Several members of this task force were in attendance today with Patti Case speaking for them as she summed up their work.

(I was just thinking this same task force should be asked to come up with a strategy to improve Mason County's Health Report. We could ask them to help move the county from 37 out of 39 up to say 20 out of 39 by 2020. When they finish with this assignment we could ask them to provide a vision for Mason County. Patti, could you and your team help us figure out what Mason County wants to be when all grown up?)

- Charlie Butros, Public Works Department announced that recently the county had followed up with Senators Cantwell/Murray and Representative Dicks on federal funding for the Simmons/Lynch Road.

(Someday in the hopefully not too distant future, folks who live off Lynch Road will be able to go off their high blood pressure medicine. On the downside, we won't know what to do for excitement when we stop getting that adrenalin charge as we make the life threatening left turn onto Highway 101.)

- Tim in discussing his calendar noted that there would be no Board of County Commissioners meeting on March 23 because he and Lynda would be out of town or otherwise not available. Looks like Ross is the only commissioner who is working full time during March. No commissioners meeting on March 9 or March 23.

(To get my full opinion on this please refer to my blog posting "Staff Driven" 12/19/2009.)

- Lynda mentioned that while she is in Washington DC next week she'll be teleconferencing back to the area so that she can be part of a discussion on replacing the Hood Canal Coordinating Council. This was made in passing as she discussed her maiden voyage "skyping".

- Lynda is meeting this week with Wilt Hamilton who works with ADAGE. She's working to get their answers to questions submitted by the public.

(If we've got questions, we probably need to get on them quickly so that ADAGE has time to prepare their "objective" responses to them.)

- On March 15 three panels plus the commissioners will be interviewing five candidates for the HR/Budget Director position.