What would a Woodinville City Council meeting be without a discussion of Brightwater?

Peter Tountas was the first to broach the topic at the June 12 meeting. He said that what local and federal governments have in common is that they both do things that individuals cannot do by themselves.

“Protection in the broadest sense of the word falls into that category,” said Tountas. “For example, I must rely on the efforts of local government to protect me from any of the hazards that Brightwater might impose. A catastrophic failure of the Brightwater facility would not only change my life, but your life – forever. Therefore it is your responsibility to make sure that every effort, every safeguard and every resource is utilized to make sure that this never happens.”

He said there was a possibility of fault lines running through the center of the site and he thought it was appropriate for the city to take advantage of the expertise of Dr. Robert Yeats, who, in his estimation, had more knowledge about seismic issues than everyone in Council Chambers put together, times ten.

Sno-King Environmental Alliance (SKEA) member Emma Dixon asked the City Council to reconsider its course of action regarding the analysis of borehole samples taken across the proposed Route 9 sewage plant site. The week of June 5, council agreed to have SKEA’s expert geologist, Dr. Yeats, study some core samples, according to Woodinville Public Works Director Mick Monken. Since then, the city has asked Yeats to sign a contract with the city’s law firm on behalf of the city for the analysis.

According to an e-mail sent by SKEA member Linda Gray, when Yeats proposed doing the analysis, he stated “ … I ask only that the report be made public, including the USGS (United States Geological Survey) and King County. In that way, the report adds to the growing amount of knowledge about the Southern Whidbey Island fault (SWIF) that affects not only the Brightwater plant but also future development in the City of Woodinville and surrounding areas that are crossed by the SWIF.”

“Instead,” Gray continued, “this proposed contract makes the facts (based on a June 8 letter from the city’s law firm to SKEA’s lawyer) ‘… subject to attorney client privilege… and Dr. Yeats’ report being confidential until such time as it might be used in an appropriate proceeding ….’”

Dixon stated, “If the public pays for the report, (which is estimated to be between $5,000 and $6,000) the report should be made available to the public and the USGS and King County.”

Later in the council meeting, council discussed the borehole analysis.

City Manager Pete Rose said, “Your main issue is basically legal strategy having to do with your current LUPA (Land Use Planning Act) action over the (Brightwater) Binding Site Plan versus making the information public from day one. The work product, I don’t think anybody from Ogden, Murphy, Wallace (the city’s law firm), the staff, council wants anybody to do anything but make that public. There is some strategy to when that happens. We just need some direction from the council as to whether that is a big deal. You still have the issue out there of SKEA having the leverage to release or not to release Dr. Yeats’ ECI (Earth Consultants International) firm.”

Deputy Mayor Hank Stecker said, “It seems pretty straightforward. This is either going to have an impact on the project or not. Dr. Yeats has made it clear he wants it to be made public pretty much out of the shute. I mean, that’s his goal. He’s not politically motivated. He just wants to get the information out. … I would suggest the city move forward to employ his services directly through staff.”

Councilman Don Brocha said, “Borehole analysis by Dr. Yeats I appreciate and I think we should do that. Making it public, we definitely need to do that. When we make it public … if we are serious about actually doing something with this lawsuit, then I would think it would be to our advantage to make sure that our attorney makes that call. But again, if we’re serious about this lawsuit – if we’re not just playing at it – then I think it would behoove us to let King County and everyone else, if you will, know about it at the same time. So when we choose to let King County know about it, we let them know about it.”

Councilman Chuck Price said, “I think under normal circumstances, it would contract to the city attorney and he would disclose the information at what time he thought the other side needed to have that information. But we’re not in normal circumstances right now and I think there’s a big public outcry for some information and confidence levels. I think what Dr. Yeats comes out with is going to be what it is. I’m comfortable to satisfy the public interest to make this information available as soon as possible.”

Brocha said, “If we’re going to hire Dr. Yeats, I’d like to have us see the work product first.”

Council voted 6-1 to hire Yeats through staff, not the city’s law firm. Brocha voted against the motion.

Rose said the city has not received a response to its May 25 letter to Christie True outlining the city’s concerns about the site’s seismic issues. He said he called True, but the call was not returned.

Rose also said that Boise State University was doing seismic profiling on the Route-9 Brightwater site. The work has been done over several years, made possible by a grant from the USGS to study the Seattle and Southern Whidbey Island faults.

“They’ve completed their work in Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue,” he said, “and now they’re working in the Woodinville and Carnation area.”

Rose said when the group reduces the data to a report, they will share it with the city.