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HomeMy WebLinkAbout028Michelle Farfan From: Sent: To: Subject: Attachments: Peter Bahls < peter@nwwatershed.org > Tuesday, February 02, 20L6 9:44 PM dwjoh nso n @co jefferso n.wa. us NWI comments on FSEIS for Pleasant Harbor Pleasa nt Ha rbor-comments on FSEIS-2-2-16 fi na l.pdf David, Please include this email and the attached letter from Dr. Richard Horner, dated Febru ary 2, 2076, in the public record of comment on the FSEIS for the Pleasant Harbor MPR and please forward these comments to the planning commission and Jefferson County Commissioners prior to the planning commission meeting on February 3,2OL6. Northwest Watershed lnstitute and over 40 partnering organizations have invested million of dollars and hundreds of thousands of labor hours over the past decade in the effort to protect a portion of the Hood Canal watershed for salmon and other wildlife, including establishing numerous protected and restored habitats along Tarboo Creek and Dabob Bay. These efforts are now jeopardized bythe proposed mega resort at Blackpoint which will probably cause significant regionalimpacts to the water quality of Hood Canal and fish and wildlife populations. Dr. Richard Horner, a foremost expert in stormwater issues, has reviewed the stormwater plan for NWI and found it seriously lacking (please see attached letter of Feb 2, 2015). ln his opinion, the stormwater plan is too general to assess whether it will adequately mitigate significant pollution problems likely for Hood Canal. ln addition, greatly increased vehicle traffic on public roads related to the construction and use of the proposed resort is likely to cause significant stormwater pollution of Hood Canal. Although this issue has been raised by Dr. Horner and others numerous times in previous public comment, it has been completed overlooked in the FSEIS analysis. As a biologist, it is my professional opinion that the planned resort will also cause significant impacts to wildlife. The FSEIS and associated wildlife habitat plan stumble on the issue of impacts to elk. The FSEIS admits that the Blackpoint area is within the habitat range of the Dosewallips elk herd and further that elk may be attracted to the golf course and thus be at increased risk of fatality along Hwy 101. The solution proposed in the FSEIS is to erect a wildlife exclusion fence. Fencing off the property to elk will also likely exclude deer and other large mammals (deer, bear, cougar) from using the property. Thus, the wildlife impacts of this project are severe - not only is native vegetation going to be destroyed on 56-81 percent of the 231 acre property (depending on the action alternative chosen) but most large wildlife will be excluded from the property altogether. Added to this problem is the increase in wildlife road kill related to the greatly increased traffic forecast for Highway 101. The FSEIS does not adequately assess these likely impacts nor provide adequate mitigation. ln summary, Northwest Watershed lnstitute believes that the FSEIS fails to adequately assess the full impacts of the proposed resort and likewise fails to provide mitigation measures for the "action" alternatives that are adequate to prevent longterm and significant harm to public and tribal resources. NWI recommends the no-action alternative to protect the public's resou rces. Sincerely, Peter Bahls, Executive Director Northwest Watershed I nstitute 3407 Eddy Street Port Townsend, WA 98368 Tel 360-385-6786 Fax 360-385-2839 www.nwwatershed.org 1 Rrculno R. HonNrn, PH.D. I 752 NW Manrpr Srnepr, # 55 1 Tsr-ppuoNe: (206) 782-7 400 SEATTLE, WasntNcroN 98107 E-van: rrhornerl@msn.com February 2,2016 Jefferson County Planning Commission c/o David Wayne Johnson, Planner Jefferson County DCD 621 Sheridan St. Port Townsend, WA 98368 [by email to dwjohnson@co jefferson.wa.us] RE Comments on FSEIS for Pleasant Harbor Marina and Golf Resort LLC, Master Planned Resort Case Numbers MLA08-00188, ZON08-00056 Dear Jefferson County Planning Commission members, I was requested by Northwest Watershed Institute (NWI) to review the FSEIS for the proposed Pleasant Harbor Marina and Golf Master Planned Resort (MPR) regarding the potentialeffects of stormwater runoff from the project on the water quality of Hood Canal and the groundwater in the vicinity. I present my findings after stating my qualifications to perform this review. BACKGROLIND AND EXPERIENCE I have 49 years of professional experien ce, 43 teaching and performing research at the college and university level. For the last 38 years I have specialized in research, teaching, and consulting in the area of storm water runoff and surface water management. I received a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Washington in 1978, following two Mechanical Engineering degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965 and 1966. Although my degrees are all in engineering, I have had substantial course work and practical experience in aquatic biology and chemistry. For 12 years beginning in l98l,I was a full-time research professor in the University of Washington's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. From 1993 until2011, I served half time in that position and had adjunct appointments in two additional departments (Landscape Architecture and the College of the Environment's Center for Urban Horticulture). I spent the remainder of my time in private consulting through a sole proprietorship. My appointment became emeritus in late 201 l, but I continue university research and teaching at a reduced level while maintaining my consulting practice. Jefferson County Planning Commission members February 2,2016 Page2 My research, teaching, and consulting embrace all aspects of stormwater management, including determination of pollutant sources; their transport and fate in the environment; physical, chemical, and ecological impacts; and solutions to these problems through better structural and non-structural management practices. I have conducted numerous research investigations and consulting projects on these subjects. Serving as a principal or co-principal investigator on more than 40 research studies, my work has produced three books, approximately 30 papers in the peer-reviewed literature, and over 20 reviewed papers in conference proceedings. I have also authored or co-authored more than 80 scientific or technical reports. In addition to graduate and undergraduate teaching, I have taught many continuing education short courses to professionals in practice. My consulting clients include federal, state, and local government agencies; citizens' environmental groups; and private firms that work for these entities, primarily on the West Coast of the United States and Canada but in some instances elsewhere in the nation. Over a l7-year period beginning in 1986I spent a major share of my time as the principal investigator on two extended research projects concerning the ecological responses of freshwater resources to urban conditions and the urbanization process. I led an interdisciplinary team for 1l years in studying the effects of human activities on freshwater wetlands of the Puget Sound lowlands. This work led to a comprehensive set of management guidelines to reduce negative effects and a published book detailing the study and its results. The second effort involved an analogous investigation over l0 years of human effects on Puget Sound's salmon spawning and rearing streams. These two research programs have had broad sponsorship, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Washington Department of Ecology, and a number of local governments. I have helped to develop stormwater management programs in Washington State, California, and British Columbia and studied such programs around the nation. I was one of four principal participants in a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-sponsored assessment of 32 state, regional, and localprograms spread among l4 states in arid, semi-arid, and humid areas of the West and Southwest, as well as the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast. This evaluation led to the 1997 publication of "lnstitutional Aspects of Urban Runoff Management: A Guide for Program Development and Implementation" (subtitled "A Comprehensive Review of the Institutional Framework of Successful Urban Runoff Management Programs"). My background includes22years of work in California, where I have been a federal court- appointed overseer of stormwater program development and implementation at the city and county level and for two California Department of Transportation districts. I was directly involved in the process of developing the l3 volumes of Los Angeles County's Stormwater Program Implementation Manual, working under the terms of a settlement agreement in federal court as the plaintiffs' technical representative. My role was to provide quality-control review of multiple drafts of each volume and contribute to bringing the program and all of its elements to an adequate level. I have also evaluated the stormwater programs in San Diego, Orange, Jefferson County Planning Commission members February 2,2016 Page 3 Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Monterey Counties, as well as a regional program for the San Francisco Bay Area. At the recommendation of San Diego Baykeeper, I have been a consultant on stormwater issues to the City of San Diego, the San Diego Unified Port District, and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. I was a member of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council ("NAS-NRC") committee on Reducing Stormwater Discharge Contributions to Water Pollution. NAS-NRC committees bring together experts to address broad national issues and give unbiased advice to the federal government. The present panel was the first ever to be appointed on the subject of stormwater. Its broad goals were to understand better the links between stormwater discharges and impacts on water resources, to assess the state of the science of stormwater management, and to apply the findings to make policy recommendations to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency relative to municipal, industrial, and construction stormwater permitting. My principal contribution to the committee's final report, issued in October 2008, was the chapter presenting the committee's recommendations for broadly revamping the nation's stormwater program. PREVIOUS INVOLVEMENT WITH THIS MATTER I submitted a comment letter on December 6,2007 regarding the Master Planned Resort (MPR) In that letter I expressed, elaborated on, and justified the following opinions, in summary: The Comprehensive Plan amendment application should be denied unless the MPR proponent can provide convincing evidence that: (l) zero discharge from the golfcourse resort can be achieved; (2) soils are conducive to the intended infiltration either in their natural condition or after amendment; (3) infiltration will not contaminate groundwater or result in below-ground delivery of pollutants to surface receiving waters, with panicular attention to golf course irrigation and rain water discharge; (4) marina discharge will be treated with a specific system to reduce harbor contamination from that source to the greatest extent possible; and (5) increased traffic will not degrade the water quality of Hood Canal and its tributary waters or threaten the survival and well-being of their resident and anadromous aquatic organisms. This evidence must be made available to the public for another review of the proposal before its official consideration. I understand that the marina has been separated from the MPR, and thus I do not comment further on the fourth point in this letter. I further understand that zero discharge from the full golf course resort has been abandoned, and a stormwater management plan has been presented. The proponent has since provided more infiltration rate data that satisfy my original concerns expressed in the second and third points. The remainder of this letter involves the fifth issue and the stormwater management plan. FINDTNGS Traffic Impacts on Water Ouality and Aquatic Life The increased traffic generated by the development will raise contaminant levels in stormwater Jefferson County Planning Commission members February 2,2016 Page 4 runoff from public roads in the vicinity, with negative impact on water quality of Hood Canal and aquatic resources. This impact has been totally ignored in the FSEIS and previous documents, although it has been raised by NWI and others in public comment numerous times Issues specific to this point are: a) DSEIS Appendix L. Transportation states that traffic related to the resort will increase by an estimated 4,100 additional vehicle trips per day. b) Highway I 0l and other roads that would see increased traffic skirt the edge of Hood Canal and directly discharge through road ditches to Hood Canal and tributary streams. c) Automotive vehicles are a major source of the fullrange of stormwater pollutants with petroleum derivatives and metals toxic to salmonids and other aquatic life being of particular concern in the ecosystem affected by the development. A variety of toxic effects on salmonids have been demonstrated from copper, originating in brake pads; zinc, stemming from tire wear; and these and other metals released to the environment through the wear of parts and fluid leaks. d) Chapter 3 of the FSEIS states that, "New pollutant-generating impervious surfaces such as roads and parking [ots, and pervious surfaces of the golf course, would introduce additional quantities of pollutants to the site during construction and long-term in the form of oils, gasoline, other mechanical fluids used to operate motorized equipment, and materials used to maintain the golf course vegetation. These pollutants would have the potential to degrade the quality of water being infiltrated into the ground if not properly treated." Yet the issue of vehicles causing stormwater pollution off the site is not addressed at all in the FSEIS. e) I expect that with this added traffic level, the increase in stormwater pollutants generated would cause significant impacts to the water quality of Hood Canal, which is already compromised, and the affected tributary streams, and to marine and anadromous organisms. 0 The increase in pollutant loading can be quantified using an available model developed as an outcome of a research project for Washington State Department of Transportation to which I contributed.r ' References: Horner, R.R. and B.W. Mar. Assessing Impacts of Operating Highways on Aquatic Ecosystems Transportation Research Record 1017 :47 -55, 1985. Horner, R.R. and B.W. Mar. A Guide for Assessing Water Quality Impacts of Highway Operations and Maintenance. Transporlation Research Record 948:31-40, 1983. Chui, T.W., B.W. Mar, and R.R. Horner. A Pollutant Loading Model for Highway Runoff. Journal of Environmental Engineering Division, ASCE 108:l 193-1120, 1982. Horner, R.R. and B.W. Mar. Cuide for Water Quality Assessment of Highway Operations and Maintenance, FHWA WA-RD-39.14. Report to Washington State Department of Transportation, 1982. Jefferson County Planning Commission members February 2,2016 Page 5 g) The FSEIS does not discuss this issue at all, let alone make any assessment of potential pollution loading increases and their impacts. h) This is third time that this specific issue has been raised by NWI and myself: first, in my letter of December 6,2007 on the FEIS; second, in the same comment letter resubmitted on January 5,2015 for the DSEIS; and now for the FSEIS. Other conservation groups, including the Brinnon Group and Hood Canal Environmental Council have also raised this specific issue in their public comments. The stormwater management plan is too general to assess potential impacts for such a major development proposal. The action alternatives involve clearing 56-87 percent of the 231-acre property of native vegetation and topsoiland grading resulting in the movement of l-2 million cubic yards of native soils. The impervious surface of the development alternatives will be in the range of l2- I 3 percent. The general level of stormwater planning and detail presented in the FSEIS and Appendices is inadequate to evaluate the potential impacts of such a large scale proposal. Issues specific to this point are: a) Somewhere between the EIS and SEIS, the proposed standards for stormwater treatment were lowered dramatically. Section3.3.7 of the FEIS states that, "The stormwater management plan wilt be designed to meet the project's requirement for zero discharge of water to Hood Canal from the golf course resort area [emphasis added]..." In other words, the EIS proposed a zero-discharge requirement for the entire resort. However, the FSEIS requires only that the golf course fairways have zero discharge and allows for the remainder of the resort be treated to state standards and acknowledging that stormwater willflow offsite to Hood Canal. As stated in Section 3.3. of DSEIS Appendix E Grading and Drainage Engineering Report (2012): "Runoff from areas other than the fairways that discharge to adjoining properties would be permitted to leave the site following flow control and treatment that complies with SWMMWW requirements. Examples of these areas of the development include the Marina Center, Maritime Village, parking area fronting Black Point Road, wastewater reclamation plant, Maintenance Building and its associated parking area, and treated and dispersed fairway discharge to Wetland D along the east property line." This change, represents a significant lowering of stormwater protection requirements for i) The FSEIS is the last opportunity for the public to gauge the cumulative impacts of the project and decide on an acceptable alternative. The FSEIS is inadequate and the project proposal should be denied unless the MPR proponent assesses the off-site traffic-related stormwater impacts and proposes mitigation measures as part of the FSEIS. Proposed Stormwater Management Plan Jefferson County Planning Commission members February 2,2016 Page 6 the resort proposal overall and is not acknowledged or assessed as such in the SEIS process. Furthermore, the proposed development will apparently not even comply with the reduced standard to provide for zero discharge of runoff from the fairways themselves, as required by Jefferson County Commissioner's Condition 63(q). As stated in the above quote from Section 3.3 of the DSEIS, the proposed development will allow for "treated and dispersed fairway discharge to Wetland D along the east property Iine". Wetland D occurs partly off the property and as stated in the Section 3.3. of DSEIS Appendix E Grading and Drainage Engineering Report (2012) "This wetland is the headwater of a drainage that flows easterly to Fulton Lake and continues easterly to Hood Canal approximately 0.5 mile to the east." Apparently, the proposed development will cause surface water runoff from the fairway into Hood Canal, in violation of the plan requirement. With the lack of specific stormwater plans as part of the SEIS, it is impossible to determine what other areas of the resort may not comply with the stated stormwater goals nor gauge the full extent of impact on the water quality and aquatic life of Hood Canal. b) The FSEIS acknowledges that stormwater will flow offsite to Hood Canal and Pleasant Harbor and states that stormwater runoff will be treated to the current edition of WDOE's Stormwater Management Manual, but provides no actual stormwater management plan. The Grading and Drainage Engineering Report in Appendix E recommend some LID methods that could be employed, such as rainwater harvest and use of rain gardens. However without specific plans and commitments as to how or where these methods would be employed, it is impossible to evaluate the adequacy of the stormwater mitigation measures to function effectively in preventing probable significant impacts. c) Similarly, the specific construction and erosion controlplan fortreating over 100 acres of clearing and grading activity and l-2 million cubic yards of dirt moving is left to a future Construction Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan. While this "kicking the can down the road" may have been acceptable in very early stages of an environmental analysis, the specifics are needed in the FSEIS to evaluate the project properly. d) To deal with the significant probable impact on water quality and quantity related to pesticides and fertilizers from the golf course, which the Jefferson County Commissioners identified as a priority that needed to be addressed, the FSEIS includes a proposed Golf Course Management Plan. However this plan simply provides an overview of potential best management practices, such as use of drought tolerate grasses. The plan does not provide any detail or make any commitments on the types or amounts of fenilizers and pesticides (herbicides, fungicides) that would be used, making it impossible to assess the potential impacts on surface and groundwater. Furthermore, no details or commitments are provided on landscape management plans for other areas of the proposed resort, where high use of fertilizers and herbicides might be expect to occur In summary, the FSEIS has very significant inadequacies in failing to assess the impacts of increased vehicle traffic on the Hood Canal ecosystem and by incorporating a stormwater Jefferson County Planning Commission members February 2,2016 Page 7 management plan with insufficient detail to assure protection of that ecosystem from discharges from the proposed development. Approval should be withheld until these faults are addressed and only if the applicant can demonstrate that such impacts can be fully mitigated. Sincerely, fl'rl--"L@,,ft**^-- Richard R. Horner, Ph.D.