  |
|
|
Department of Ecology News Release - December 8, 2006
06-258
YAKIMA - The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) is challenging the environmental approval of three adjacent subdivisions in Kittitas County, citing that the developments should have been evaluated as a single project.
Ecology believes the combined effects of the subdivisions, particularly with regard to a legal and adequate water supply, were not taken into consideration when the county conducted its State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) review.
Today, the agency formally appealed the Mitigated Determination of Non-significance (MDNS) decisions made by Kittitas County on the three proposed developments.
According to Washington Administrative Code 197-11-060, proposals that relate to each other are to be evaluated in the same environmental document.
The three contiguous 14-lot subdivisions and another already approved by the county are all owned by the same group of developers. The three projects under appeal are White Tail LLC; Watson Cutoff LLC, and Vaquero Valley LLC. The fourth adjacent subdivision is called Pine View Estates LLC.
In written comments made to the county during its SEPA review of the three projects, Ecology urged the county to evaluate water supply needs and consider the projects as one.
"Water supplies are always a concern in the Yakima River basin, whether for fish, farmers or housing developments," explained Tom Tebb, Ecology water resources manager in Yakima. "By breaking this project up into four smaller developments, it appears the developers are trying to avoid requirements under the law to obtain water right permits or secure a water supply from an existing water purveyor."
Ecology is taking the action based on its concerns over the reliability and adequacy of long term water supplies for the citizens of Kittitas County and the Yakima River Basin and in consideration of its obligation to protect senior water rights in the basin.
# # #
Media contact: Joye Redfield-Wilder, public information manager, (509) 575-2610
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
