Last Saturday, I woke to the sound of trees being uprooted on the airport path. There are streams on the property but with no trees to filter and slow the water, it will flow more quickly to the south into what is left of the wetland across Enchanted Forest Road.

Because environmental protections have been weakened for Eastsound’s Urban Growth Area, rainwater flows along the sides of Lover’s Lane without the needed filtration in the wetland before it hits the water in Eastsound Bay.

There is a culvert that goes across under the road but it is too small so that in heavy rains the water can’t flow into the wetland to the south but instead it heads down Enchanted Forest Road to Lover’s Lane, south and into the bay without being filtered and cleansed in the wetland! All of the pollutants drain directly into the bay. Two years ago this was pointed out by me to the council at a public hearing. Nothing was done to replace the culvert with a larger one.

There have been apparent conflicts of interests between some former members of the Eastsound Planning Review Committee and the resulting Eastsound giveaway to those profiting from the removal of environmental protections and restrictions in critical areas. These protections have been reduced or waived by the county in order to facilitate the free for all development (destruction) of Eastsound!

Orcas Island, the serene, is being divided even more than it has been. It has been engineered to become a place of “The Haves and the Have Nots” and the “Have Nots” are being forced to live in Eastsound (actually, 56 percent of our population) mandated by the Growth Management Act, further separating people from people, and from the natural world. The individuals, businesses and county officials know who they are, their lack of integrity and courage to stand up to monetary interests. You are all here to serve the best interests of we, the people, not the other way around!

Spirit Eagle

Eastsound