Water is the stuff of life, and access to water is a
death or life issue. He who controls water rights (and land/property rights)
controls people. Free people work out their own water allocations. Captive
people are dictated to. Recent Washington Growth Management Hearings Boards
judgments treat Whatcom Citizens as their captive subjects. Even the Lummi and
Nooksack tribes should be suspicious when state and federal governments play
favorites. This is important stuff!!!
Civil, thoughtful, funny, testy—the discussion was
productive and forward moving. The full meeting notes should be posted on the
WRIA 1 website in a day or two. Some water caucuses were notably absent. Both
tribal groups. The environmental caucus. The fisherman’s caucus. The purse
seiner’s caucus. Diking and drainage. I also did not recognize very many of the
recent WIT consortium in the observation seats. It was an evening meeting
though, and paid government staff are often grudging about giving up their
recreational time.
An interesting piece of theater was the body language of
Doug Allen, Department of Ecology in Bellingham. He stood in the back for the
first part of the meeting, then quietly went and took a place at the table. Do
the major political stakeholders WANT local (water planning unit) governance to
succeed? I have large suspicions that the planning unit is seen as an
undesirable placenta that will challenge current recipients of federal and
state grants, monies that largely undermine citizen governance concerns.
Our family has a stake in two caucuses represented last
night. Agriculture and water associations. We do not have a well. (Well owners
should be very on edge over recent events, given the threats to deny new wells
in various areas in the county. The well owner’s caucus has probably been the
most thorough in organizing for the planning unit re-start, but only about 1%
of the 10,000 well owners voted on representation recently).
Was our water association represented last night? Sumas
Rural Water Association did not send out any notification to us. Having followed
this issue, I have been kept appraised by officials of other water associations
or districts. Who takes care of your water? Who represents you in this process?
I am not a little burned over our agricultural water
representation. Henry Bierlink sat at the table. He runs Farm Friends, and I am
on the mailing and e-mail lists. I received no notification of this meeting. In
fact, Farm Friends may send out one or two e-mails a year. I did not vote for or against Henry
Bierlink. Who sent him there? Who does he represent?
Landon Van Dyke was stated to be the ag water caucus
alternate if Henry can not be there. He sits on the Whatcom County Agricultural
Advisory Council. This council was spearheaded by Henry Bierlink and Chuck
Antholt a number of years ago. We have been looking for the dates for the fall
series of Ag Advisory Council meetings and they are no where to be found.
Recently, Samya Lutz, the Whatcom County PDS staff person working with Ag
Advisory moved on. Hello-o-o? Is anybody home?
We have lived here since 1994. We are a “small potatos”,
value added, wannabee sheep dairy. We pay taxes and are subject to dictates
just like the big guys. I could drill an illegal well and irrigate my dried out
pasture in the summer, I suppose, but I have not done so. A neighbor told me
that Henry Bierlink did him tremendous service a decade or more ago, in dealing
with a very aggressive Ecology staffer, but it seems that Henry Bierlink is
only concerned with the big boys now.
In fact, Henry is up to his eyeballs in working with
Futurewise and Whatcom Land Trust, the “no land use” activists. I am also NOT
sold on the Natural Resources Marketplace thing that Henry is pushing. He had the gall to start out by saying last
night, that he was not interested in participating in something that was not
going to have authority. Does Futurewise represent me? Whatcom Land Trust? Absolutely
not. Should my water, plant or wildlife property rights be separable from the
land I live on? Who DOES Henry represent? Some one world government
environmentalist capital funds investor in Stockholm?
The bottom line. Who is the agricultural water caucus?
Where is the Soil Conservation Service in this? Whatcom Cattleman’s
Association? The dairy and berry people? Who authorized Henry Bierlink to
represent me? I would like some answers here.
Maybe Claire Fogelsong, City of Bellingham rep last
night, was onto something in suggesting that the caucuses provide documentation
of representing and reporting to their members. Henry, are you listening? Do
you duly represent the agricultural water caucus? Are you engaged, farmers?
John Kirk, Sumas.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated.