The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

To The Editor:

Amendment 14 of the United States Constitution reads in part Guarantee of Protection to All Citizens:

Section 1. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.’

The Shoreline Management Plan is designed to take life, liberty and property without due process of the law. It is a calculated and deliberate attempt by the Department of Ecology, WDFW, CREST and numerous other agencies, to shut down farming, logging and fishing in Wahkiakum County.

April 13th at the Grays River Fire Hall, Lily Kolditz, who is chair of the county’s property rights committee, was invited to speak to a group of approximately 40 citizens to hear a summery and the projected consequences of the plan. There are many troubling points to this plan; one of the most egregious is the 200 foot setbacks from any river or stream with 20 cubic feet of flow. This county is made of waterways and not only will this action stifle improvement it will take acres of land being farmed today and most likely put some farmers out of business.

The entire plan can be viewed at http://www.co.wahkiakum.wa.us/ . Scroll down to ‘Wahkiakum County & Town of Cathlamet Shoreline Management Program Update Material’ then scroll to ‘SMP final draft’ then click on ‘Final Draft SMP- Clean Copy’. One of the first things you will notice is the draft was prepared by CREST (Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce) out of Astoria, OR and the Department of Ecology (DOE), however paragraph 1.1 states “The SMP was created from the community’s input…”. Paul Toftmark, who attended the meeting, informed the gathering he was on the ‘community advisory committee’. When the writers of the plan were asked for changes to the draft, by the committee, they were informed the state would not favor any changes. In reading the plan, notice all of the changes made by the DOE.

The question is what is the purpose of the plan? According to this report, the state’s Shoreline Management Act (SMA) was originally passed by the legislature in 1971 to prevent inherent harm in an uncoordinated and piecemeal development of the state’s shoreline. This may be needed in larger counties like King where the population is exploding but the Wahkiakum County population of 4000 has remained the same for years (+/- one or two). Our county needs growth and this plan would stop any possibility.

If there are plans to subdivide any portion of land or apply for building permits within or near the setbacks; do so sooner than later as this plan will either not allow it or make it very expensive. The final draft is scheduled to be looked at again April 28 then submitted to the commissioners sometime later. Commissioner Dan Cothern was at the meeting and is not in favor of the draft as written. He stated the Department of Ecology has gained too much power and he will not tolerate the loss of property rights.

This will not just go away. Apparently there is one county in the State of Washington that is fighting the plan, however no one, at the meeting, knew which county it was. There was some discussion at the meeting of the citizens writing their own plan however, nothing was formalized.

Silver lining? As soon as the DOE, WDFD, CREST and all those other ‘do good’ agency people finish saving whatever they dream up, they will have to get real jobs as the taxpayers paying their way now, will no longer be able to. Let’s just hope we survive long enough to witness it.

Colleen Haley

Grays River