A Reasonable Way Forward:
ORCAS: September 24, 2012 Eastsound Fire Hall 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
LOPEZ: September 27, 2012 Lopez Community Center 3:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Tim Blanchard, Vice-President, Common Sense Alliance
The Common Sense Alliance (CSA), a San Juan County-based community organization focused on environmental protection, community health, and economic vitality, has submitted to the County Council its urgent recommendation that the County abandon its current proposed changes to our Critical Areas Ordinance, because the proposal is scientifically and legally indefensible, and that the County instead affirm our existing CAO regulatory scheme, improve its enforcement, and develop a professional data collection and monitoring program.
CSA Board Members Tim Blanchard, an Orcas attorney, and Ed Kilduff, a Lopez engineer will review the status of the CAO changes being proposed and the details of CSA’s alternative proposal, with time for questions and comments from the audience.
The CSA recommendations constitute a sensible, compliant, and prudent way forward for our County, our environment, our economy, and our people. We recognize the success of the substantial public and private efforts by our citizens to protect our ecosystem. We acknowledge the significant testimony and factual evidence of our environment’s health, while accepting that areas of uncertainty remain which may be clarified over time by monitoring of appropriate scale and quality.
The question that came to the minds of most of us as this process unfolded is “What is the problem”? To date, we have seen no scientifically supportable answer.
CSA urges the Council instead to recognize that the current process is irredeemably tainted, the existing product is fatally flawed, and that it is time to do to move ahead to obtain the information we need for rational rules for the protection of our environment. We invite you to review our recommendations at https://www.commonsensealliance.net, and to urge Council to pursue them.
