Birch Bay Watershed Tax Advances

By Sam Taylor, The Bellingham Herald, Wash.

Jul. 9–a new tax on property owners between Birch Bay and Ferndale is closer to reality after a Whatcom County Council committee Monday called for a public hearing on the issue.

Council members are being asked to create a new fee for property owners in the Birch Bay watershed to help protect the water quality of Birch Bay. The Birch Bay Watershed and Resources Management District, created in 2007, stretches southeast from Semiahmoo Spit toward the edge of Ferndale.

The new tax would help pay for capital improvement projects, educational efforts and administration of the program, according to county documents.

The first six projects, mostly drainage improvements to various areas, would cost about $3.45 million, but those numbers aren’t guaranteed, said Kraig Olason, the county planner overseeing the project.

Property owners closer to Ferndale have been up in arms about the district. They say they were poorly informed about the district’s creation as well as proposals to tax them more to help pay for what they believe amounts to fixes for Birch Bay residents and not them.

County staff point out there have been seven public meetings on the issue as well as two newsletters mailed to each property owner in the watershed.

There is also some concern about how the BP Cherry Point Refinery, which is in the taxing district, would be charged. Councilman Sam Crawford said company officials have lobbied council members this week, arguing that they are already so heavily regulated for stormwater runoff by the state Department of Ecology that they shouldn’t have to pay as much as the county would like, which is about $170,000.

The refinery wants to pay about $50,000, Crawford said.

"For them, it’s an equity issue," he said.

Crawford also was concerned about the program’s administrative and monitoring costs, estimated at more than $386,000 — 30 percent — annually.

Under the proposal being considered by the council, all impervious surfaces on a property would be taxable. Those surfaces are basically anywhere there’s concrete or mate-rial that water can’t penetrate and get into the ground to be better filtered.

An analysis of the watershed showed that the average single-family residence has about 4,000 square feet of impervious surface, so that’s the basis for the new tax. That amount will be factored into the overall size of the property to determine whether a property is in one of three categories for amount of impervious surface: low, medium or high.

Those that are disabled and senior citizens are exempt from the tax. Undeveloped land wouldn’t be charged. Public property — including park land with impervious surfaces — must be charged the fee, but county and state roads are exempt.

Also, while a watershed district advisory committee believes that vacant subdvisions should still be charged, county staff is recommending holding off on that. Olason suggested that a revisit of the program wouldn’t happen for one to two years, which would be the time to look at vacant subdivisions.

Councilwoman Barbara Brenner said the program’s goals were admirable but that people in the watershed should be "incentivized" to ensure their property has proper stormwater controls, and they should be able to do it with their own money.

"We should be bending over backwards to get people to take some responsibility rather than forking over the money to big government," Brenner said.

Reach Sam Taylor at sam.taylor@bellinghamherald.com or call 715-2263.

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