I was going to turn in a really cute article on bowling this week,

but something happened last night to change my mind. Now I am so

angry I could spit, and here is why.

Most of us in Eastern King County received a small green postcard

inviting us to a public meeting on a new “basin plan”. Most people tossed

it out. I didn’t. I went.

Basin plan my aching #$%!. It is a TAX. A NEW TAX. A TAX A

TAX A TAX!!!

And what do we get for this tax? We get to be a part of Surface

Water Management. Surface Water Management (SWM, pronounced “swim”)

is a boondoggle that exists in unincorporated urban King County to

assess the damage caused by water. They rarely fix anything, mind you,

mostly they just assess.

For $85 per year we in the unincorporated part of Eastern

King County can get 13 (six in the valley alone!) new bureaucrats to tell

farmers to stop their cows from doing their business in the rivers. Oh, and did

I tell you about the grant program? You know the one; they were so proud

it got front-page coverage in the Journal. They gave a grant so a

private property owner could build a really cute boardwalk through their

backyard peat bog. Isn’t that a great use of tax dollars?

The $85 figure is only for residential customers. Commercial

customers will pay much, much more. They are assessed by the amount of

“impervious surface” on there property.

And guess what? SWM considers gravel roads and driveways

impervious! Oops!

But not if you are Weyerhaeuser or Plum Creek. You see

forestland doesn’t count! They are only assessed on office space in the area. All

those logging roads and clear cuts are not assessed one thin dime because

they are governed by the Forest Practices Act.

Of course, we have people in the Department of Natural Resources

that are supposed to handle surface water now. They are funded by

something called the “River Improvement

Fund,” and here is where things get downright sickening.

We assess ourselves $.02 per thousand for The River Improvement

Fund to inspect and repair the levies on the rivers and improve flood warning

systems. The people at DNR or King County Council – I am not sure

which – stopped or delayed this important work to fund this basin program.

I want everyone who is washed away in the next “100 year flood’

because there levy failed to feel good about it, because instead of levy repair

Bear Creek has a basin plan!.

It is the unbelievable mismanagement that moves funds from levy

repair to basin planning that causes the huge distrust of our elected officials.

I am sure when the river levies fail that the King County Council will

come crying to us that they need more funding for this essential service. I

just want to scream!!!!!

Now don’t get me wrong. I believe surface water runoff is a big

problem and growing with the increased development in the Valley. But for

almost 1.6 million dollars a year from the Snoqualmie Valley alone, this

plan will do nothing for us. The vast majority of the money goes to “experts.”

What we need is for someone to enforce runoff mitigation.

If King County and DDES need to do their job of ensuring that

mitigation of runoff works and is done properly (most I suspect is not

done at all!). Or, how about the programs we current fund with our tax

dollars, you know, like the Road Maintenance Department? They have a huge

backlog of water over the road complaints, but has the Council moved their

funding too?

According to the literature even though we pay taxes in King

County, we are not currently “eligible for

consideration by County Engineers” because we are not part of SWM.

We help pay their salary; we just cannot talk to them.

You do not get to vote on this one. The only thing we can do is lobby

the King County Council. The only way to stop this idiocy is for a whole lot

of us to call or write.

If you agree with me, call everyone on the council and tell them

we don’t want SWM and tell them to restore the levy repair funds TODAY!

While you are at it call ten friends and have them call too.

Everyone votes on the Council so you have to call them all, especially because

all those other guys can out-vote the rural representatives every time.

Figure it this way: you are paying yourself at least $85.00 for your time. And that

is just for the first year!

Here are the members of the King County Council, who can be

reached at (206) 296-1000:

Maggi Fimia, Cynthia Sullivan, Louise Miller, Larry Phillips,

Dwight Pelz, Rob McKenna, Pete von Reichbauer, Greg Nickels,

Kent Pullen, Larry Gossett, Jane Hague, Brian Derdowski and Chris

Vance. Don’t forget Ron Sims; this is his plan after all.

More information? You can get copies of the whole shebang from

the County Council. I refer you to page 2-2 for the rundown on what you

get for your money, and note only 16.2% goes to actual capital

improvements. The rest is for experts, management, assessment and advice.

Kate Russell lives in the netherworld between Carnation

and Duvall. You can reach her by e-mail at Katemo1@msn.com.