West Bay property development opposed by local citizen

An Open Letter to the Mayor and City Council Members: 

When we moved to Olympia a year ago we were delighted that we would be living in a community with folks whose values aligned with ours, where our neighbors cared about each other, their neighborhoods, their city and their planet.

We were therefore so shocked to read about the plan to develop the West Bay property identified in the OCEP appeal of December 1, 2020.  I was a candidate for County Commissioner in Mason County the last time I encountered a proposal as potentially dangerous as this.  That proposal was much the same as this – build a school on the side of a former county landfill.  What could go wrong? 

Now, here in Olympia we are looking at development on a piece of shoreline property rife with dioxin and who knows what other toxic substances.  Who knows?  Not the city council.  Why? Because no formal environmental assessment has been planned or conducted.  In fact, what you did agree to was to look the other way; to ignore the potential impact on the people who unknowingly go there to live, play.  What of the salmon passing by?  Or the other marine life that will certainly be affected if the toxic substances leech through the soil and ooze into the bay. 

I am currently on the board of the Pacific Northwest Salmon Center in Belfair.  I know the damage that toxins and plastic and whatever else we humans discard in or near the water can do to this ever more endangered species.  I can still tell my grandkids that we are so fortunate to have these creatures in our waters.  Will they be able to say the same to theirs?

Let’s take a deep breath and allow ourselves to wait on the approval of this development until a proper, contemporary Environmental Impact Study can be completed.  

Failing that, someone with the legal know-how should, as ‘deep throat’ suggested during the Watergate scandal, “follow the money.”

The citizens who care about the planet are watching.

Dennis Hamilton,  Olympia