01 Creekside at the Ridge
Addressing Creekside's Risk for Birch Bay / Blaine Drinking Water
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Water Planning Matters Files Adjudication Request with Dept. of Health
Because the City of Blaine excluded expert facts and DOH left drinking water risks unresolved, WPM filed a Declaratory Order to protect public health
01.12.2026
DOH 4.07.2026 Reply to Citizen Concerns
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Deflects core risk question
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Claims limited regulatory responsibility
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Defers actions on protection until 2028
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Ignores detailed technical gaps report
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Treats paperwork process as protection against contamination.
Documenting Critical Gaps in Water Protection & Public Safety
March 31, 2026
New!
26 unresolved source-water protection deficiencies, including 11 serious issues.
Actionable Recommendations to assure Public Safety
Creekside is a pending manufactured home development on 144 acres within the Critical Aquifer Recharge Area. Phase I plans for 150 units on 49 acres with up to 568 units for later phases.(1)(2)
It lies with a .8 mile radius of a municipal wellfield serving 17,000 people in Blaine and Birch Bay.
Slightly more than 25 percent of the broader project area lies within the 5-year Time-of-Travel zone for municipal Well 9, while key source-water protection issues for active shallow wells remain unresolved.
Creekside Specific Binding Site Plan and Stormwater Routing to Municipal Recharge Corridor. The site plan codifies a 150-unit, high-density residential configuration. The design concentrates and routes mass-graded stormwater effluent south into the H Street ditch and the southeast drainage corridor [Ex. 07, GBSP, Sheet 6, 2025]. The primary-source hydrogeological baseline verifies that this specific southeastern drainage physically intersects the "High recharge potential" segment and the 10-year Time of Travel (TOT) capture zone for active shallow municipal supply Wells 3 through 6 [Ex. 15, Aquifer Recharge Area Assessment Report, p. 7-8, 2024]. The current engineering design structurally omits enhanced source-water treatment measures to attenuate vehicular particulates, including 6PPD-quinone, and unmitigated surface loading prior to concentrated discharge into this verified recharge corridor Sources: [Ex. 07, GBSP, Sheet 6, 2025; Ex. 19.02, Creekside Prelim Stormwater Site Plan REVISED, p. 54, 2025].
Sources: Composite map of Creekside test pits, contributing basins, and inferred groundwater flow paths showing hydraulic connectivity toward Wellfield 440 capture zones (~0.8 miles downgradient). The proposed eastern detention area, not field-verified, lies within a mapped recharge-connected corridor aligned with the downgradient wellfield basin and capture-zone framework. Sources: Ex. 15 Aquifer Recharge Assessment; Ex. 17 Geotechnical Report; Ex. 19 Preliminary Stormwater Site Plan; BLA 440 Critical Areas Report, Figure 3 Contributing Basin Map.
Time of Travel for City of Blaine / Birch Bay WHPA. The WHPA extends into Whatcom County jurisdiction. Municipal Wells 3 through 6 are shallow-system wells physically intersecting the 5-year and 10-year Time of Travel (TOT) capture zones, and Well 9 is a shallow supply well directly downgradient. Active municipal Wells 4.1 and 8.1 are also shallow supply wells within this system, but were structurally omitted from the Developer / applicant's TOT model. Aquifer Recharge and Wellhead Protection Map for the East Harbor Hills/Creekside area, showing recharge-potential classes, groundwater time-of-travel zones, and wellhead protection areas for nearby City of Blaine wells. GeoEngineers states that slightly more than 25 percent of the project area lies within the 5-year time of travel for Well 9 and that the current WHPA/TOT geometry derives from Golder (1996). Under that same Golder framework, vertical travel time from ground surface to the Shallow Aquifer in the Boundary Upland is treated as effectively instantaneous for planning purposes because of strong vertical hydraulic communication and potential conduit pathways. Golder also modeled nitrate loading under denser development scenarios in the approximately 2 to 4 mg/L range among the contamination hazards to the municipal wells. Sources: [Ex. 15, Aquifer Recharge Area Assessment Report, p. 7-8, Figure 3, 2024; Ex. 24, Third Party Aquifer study review, p. 3, 2025; Ex. Well head protection program, p. 35-36, 58, 65, 73, 1996].
(1),(2) Sources
(1) "We understand the project will likely consist of a maximum of 568 residential units, clustered such that a large portion of the parcels will remain undeveloped," Developer Ex. 15 Aquifer Recharge Area Assessment Report, 2024, Developer Ex. 24. Third Party Aquifer study review 2.25.25.pdf, 2025,
(2) Craig Parkinson, Cascade Engineering (Creekside developer) "There'll be 150 manufactured homes and some number of other kinds of units depending on what is developed for a plan. There's no plan right now, but the property based on zoning will be up to four units per acre for the parcels that are undeveloped" [Ex. Creekside Hearing 3.26.2026 part 2.m4a, Speaker: Craig Parkinson, 2026].
