News - Local News

POSTED: Monday, Dec. 29, 2008

Money running short for Swift Creek protection

Gov. Chris Gregoire has provided $1 million to help structure levies around Swift Creek in a way that would better protect the community from flooding.

But the money isn’t enough to prevent the creek, which has naturally occurring asbestos in it, from flooding perhaps in the near future, officials recently told Whatcom County Council members.

That $1 million still has to make it through the state Legislature’s review of the governor’s budget proposal, in a time when the state is facing a $6 billion budget deficit and the federal government is putting the checkbook away, too.

“We’re in kind of a status where Swift Creek isn’t really being managed physically,” said Paul Pittman, a county geologist who has worked nearly full time on trying to figure out how to protect the area around the creek from flooding. Pittman spoke with council members Dec. 9.

The asbestos in the creek is a fibrous material that washes down from a landslide on Sumas Mountain. The county used to dredge the creek to prevent flooding, and asbestos-laden sediment piled up along the creek was hauled off by locals to use as fill or for other projects. That stopped in 2005 because the state said it was unsafe to disturb the cancer-causing asbestos in the sediment. Now, the state Department of Ecology has approved limited work at the site.

This summer’s dredging will likely have short-term benefits, Pittman told council members as he painted a dire picture of the ability of the county to get funding. A “long-term solution” to fixing the asbestos issues could cost more than $100 million, Pittman has previously told the council.

Council members are taking issue with the state government and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency demanding more protection. Councilman Seth Fleetwood asked his peers if they should have a policy discussion on “whether or not we agree it is much ado about nothing or if it is something we should spend time on.”

County Councilman Sam Crawford called the issue “a making of the EPA” because most stats show nobody in the area is getting sick.

That’s true, according to a February 2008 report by the state Department of Health, which said that people who live around the creek appear to have the same sort of rates of cancer and other health issues as the rest of Washington. But the levels of asbestos found in the air are above what the state and federal government consider safe, according to the report. So those governments are trying to take a better-safe-than-sorry approach.

That has left Whatcom County with a hefty, and very expensive, task.

Because there is little cash going around — and the county didn’t get $400,000 from the federal government it had requested — flooding could be imminent, Pittman said.

If that occurs, it could be an emergency situation, since the state and federal government have declared the area’s asbestos a risk to public health. Assistant Public Works Director Jon Hutchings said that the flooding may be the only way for the other governments to realize the situation the county is in.

“I guess I’m on the record saying that somehow the EPA has to get pushed to the cusp before they’re going to act,” Hutchings said, “and that’s where we’re headed.”