It’s newsworthy in Woodinville because a solid waste transfer station is another “essential public facility” that King County is seeking a home for.

We all know too well what that means. Our local jurisdiction cannot prevent it from being located here if the King County Executive decides that it’s going in our neighborhood.

King County owns 112 acres of land where they hope to build a 25-acre wastewater treatment plant, inappropriately named “Brightwater.” The remaining 85 odd acres of land could easily accommodate the 20-acre garbage transfer station with room to spare.

Two years ago when cities like Edmonds and Bothell were aggressively fighting off King County’s efforts to site Brightwater within their jurisdiction, the Woodinville City Council passively sat back and waited for events to unfold.

Those of you who sat on the Council then were fond of saying “we have no permitting authority,” implying that Woodinville had no power to stop the project.

True enough, but what you really lacked was the courage and the character to stand up and fight for the citizens of Woodinville by challenging King County to prove that this facility was essential and that Rt. 9 was the most appropriate site.

The Sno-King Environmental Alliance also has no permitting authority, yet they have single-handedly fought King County to a standstill.

Despite the cheerful outlook offered by the Brightwater proponents, King County has yet to turn over the first shovelful of dirt. What have you done?

Back when it mattered, there was so much you could have done. Even now it’s not too late.

You could still reject the interlocal agreement, you could put it up to a vote of the people in a referendum, you could even join SKEA in the lawsuit to force King County to do the trenching that would reassure us that this plant is not built on an active earthquake fault.

You were seduced by the lure of easy mitigation money and ultimately sold your votes and betrayed the people who elected you and trusted you to honestly represent them. It should come as no surprise to you now that you yourselves may yet be betrayed by King County as they could very likely locate yet another “essential public facility” on the Brightwater site that you so helpfully facilitated.

Congratulations! Your strategy of appeasement is about to bear bitter fruit. You got a couple of million dollars and worthless “seat at the table” for your votes on Brightwater.

Maybe you can do better for a garbage transfer station. Perhaps there’s a regional jail in our future or a drug rehabilitation center or Woodinville’s crown jewel, a sex predator half-way house, all “essential public facilities.”

In California, this practice is called “environmental racism,” concentrating undesirable public facilities in disenfranchised, minority neighborhoods.

Here in Woodinville, I personally would describe your reprehensible actions as a form of prostitution, when overly ambitious city councilmembers sell out themselves and their trusting constituents to the King County Executive in what will inevitably be regarded as your shameful legacy.