August 17, 2009
YELM WITHDRAWS MDNS - CITING LACK OF NEW 2009 DOE WATER RIGHTS
Yelm Public Safety Building & City Council Chambers
The City of Yelm announced on Friday, August 14th that their MDNS has been withdrawn in this statement listed on the city's website:
"The Mitigated Determination of Non-significance dated May 1, 2009, regarding Yelm’s application to the Washington State Department of Ecology [DOE] for additional water rights (Ecology application numbers G2-29084, G2-29085, and G2-29086) is hereby withdrawn by the City of Yelm.
This action has been taken after the Washington State Department of Ecology indicated that it will not take action on Yelm’s applications for additional water rights in 2009. Withdrawal of the MDNS also provides additional time for the City to continue its work alongside its watershed partners in refining the proposed water rights mitigation plan.
You will be notified when the City re-issues a threshold determination in this matter."
THIS IS HUGE!
Finally, the City of Yelm's disregard for the environmental effects of their desires to pump huge amounts of water, lack of consideration for citizen input, contempt for neighboring property owners living outside of city limits affected by the proposed aquifer drawdown and basic snubbing their noses at procedures put in place by the State to protect all has been squelched!
This issue has been covered here thoroughly on the following dates, for those wishing to learn more about Yelm's MDNS:
JZ KNIGHT SPEAKS OUT ON HARDING'S NVN COLUMN & DOE DECISION ABOUT WATER - July 26th
NOT ONE COMMENT IN FAVOR OF YELM MDNS, YET 100 AGAINST - June 3rd
THIS STOPS THE CITY IN THEIR TRACKS IN APPROVING ANY FURTHER DEVELOPMENT, AS THEY ARE AT THEIR LIMIT ON THE AMOUNT OF WATER ALLOCATED BY ECOLOGY THEY CAN PUMP ALREADY!
HAVEN'T YOU NOTICED THE ROADSIDE STRIPS OF GRASS ON YELM AVENUE ARE NOT WATERED THIS YEAR, EXCEPT IN FRONT OF SAFEWAY, WHO PAYS FOR THEIR OWN GRASS WATERING? HMMM!
Did anyone notice the city's MDNS withdrawal was posted on a Friday, well after the city's offiical newspaper weekly publication date & buried in the Public Notices page on the city's website?
Isn't this Yelm News that warrants being listed on the Homepage for all of the public to see?
Or is the city too embarrassed to post this information there?
Unfortunately, non-Yelm Community Blog readers will not see this information until next week's NVN. However, since only a handful of Yelm property owners out of the 100 public comments against the MDNS were from inside the city limits, citizens have shown little interest in affairs of their local government anyway.
Harsh words?
Yes!
Someone has to say them!
UPDATE: Tuesday, August 18, 2009
The Olympian & Tacoma news Tribune ran this sotry in their editions today:
The only error in their report was they reported Thurston Highlands would have 5,000 people, rather than the much larger-impacting proposed 5,000 homes:
The Olympian
&
The Tacoma News Tribune
Thank you JZ for all of your efforts and thank you Steve for keeping us updated.
Mimi Pracna
Thank you Steve for this exciting piece of information as well as your perseverance in keeping us alert. And blessings to JZ for pursuing this. May this issue never rear its ugly head again!
Thank you.
I want to point out how disingenuous the City of Yelm is and in particular
Community Development Director Beck:
Do you see this MDNS withdrawal information on the City's website homepage under Yelm News?
NO!
Isn't this is news that warrants being on the Homepage?
After all, the public was involved in the comment period & about 100 comments were received, all against the MDNS.
No, this news was buried under Public Notices.
When asked about this recently, I was told this type of information is always on the Public Notices page.
Come on! This is not news that warrants a home page posting.
Also, scroll down on the City's Homepage to:
Draft Water System Plan Released
http://www.ci.yelm.wa.us/
and notice the post date of 3/23/09
The city put information on the homepage they had a Draft Water System Plan, however never posted the Plan for the public to see. I asked about this many times last Spring & finally the Draft Water System Plan was released in early June.
Don't believe me?
Look for yourself:
http://www.ci.yelm.wa.us/publicworks/waterplan/waterplan.htm
scroll down to
Draft Water System Plan - June 2009
I brought this up to the City Council & have written about it and still the city's homepage says March 23,2009 was the posting date of the Draft Water System Plan.
More lies, deceptions and contempt for the public, however since only a handful of Yelm's public take interest in city affairs, so this is what they get.
To put my remarks in-context, Beck manages what, when & where information goes on the city's website.
Stay tuned, as I will bringing into the open more on city deceptions soon!
Hi Steve,
Thank goodness - Yay.:) Nice work.
BTW - I noticed that, according to the City's public notice,
"Withdrawal of the MDNS also provides additional time for the City to continue its work ... refining the proposed water rights mitigation plan."
If that statement is true, there is still no concession to the public commentors and others who want the city to have an EIS done.
Also, what ever happened about the Real Estate acquisition meeting? Did that turn out to be about the Thurston Highlands property? I never buy the NVN anymore, so if there was any news on that I would have missed it.
Thanks for keeping us informed on these issues. I really appreciate the work you are doing.
Kathleen
So be THAT....
Well done JZ and Steve,
I am so grateful to you both!
It appears that anything the Yelm citizens, or for that matter, the "Yelm outer and inner folks" wanted to be said and heard -- was delivered by JZ Knight and DOE.
Good common sense appears to be scarce on the ground as far as the City of Yelm is concerned. This is "OUR
WATER" -- the most important and sustainable substance we have!
Great work though, and my thanks go to you for allowing a place for us Yelm folks to have a voice!!
Excellent news, you are appreciated!
Pam