WPM Files SEPA Appeal Brief - Round 1

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 19, 2025

Water Planning Matters Files Closing SEPA Appeal Brief to Blaine’s Avista Development

Whatcom County, WA  — Water Planning Matters (WPM – formerly Blaine Water Coalition) filed its closing brief in the largest SEPA appeal in the City of Blaine’s history, following five unprecedented days of hearings on the proposed 490-unit Avista at Birch Point project — one of the largest developments ever proposed in Whatcom County. Earlier, Whatcom County filed its own SEPA appeal against the City of Blaine and settled. The appeal challenges the City’s approval, assumptions and determination, arguing Blaine is using outdated standards for wetlands, creeks and stormwater ponds and by doing so shifts flooding, pollution, and millions in infrastructure costs downhill onto Birch Bay residents and BBWARM  ratepayers.

The phrase "stormwater knows no boundaries" means that rainwater runoff, along with the pollutants it carries, does not respect property lines or jurisdictional borders, affecting everyone downstream. This is why managing stormwater is a shared responsibility, from individual property owners to the city and federal levels and requires cooperation to prevent pollution and flooding. Stormwater runoff is a natural process driven by gravity. It collects water from development impervious surfaces which is not absorbed by the ground and directs it downhill, often through a network of ponds, ditches, drains, and pipes, which carries it across different properties and into local water bodies like Birch Bay. It will cost  Whatcom County and the Birch Bay BBWARM rate payers in the Birch Bay watershed close to $9 million dollars to provide the pipes and conveyance systems to collect the downslope stormwater which finally ends up in Birch Bay!

Doralee Booth, Civic Leader, Birch Bay

Full brief and hearing record: https://www.waterplanningmatters.org/avista-sepa-appeal

Media contact: Tina Erwin, Otto Pointer, Co-Founders Water Planning Matters info@waterplanningmatters.org