## Meeting Overview The Whatcom County Council Climate Action and Natural Resources Committee convened at 11:32 a.m. on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in the Council Chambers for a brief but substantive hybrid meeting. Committee Chair Kaylee Galloway presided, joined by Council members Todd Donovan and Mark Stremler. The meeting drew additional attendance from Council members Barry Buchanan, Tyler Byrd, Ben Elenbaas, and Jon Scanlon, reflecting the broad interest in stormwater management issues that affect the rapidly developing Birch Bay area. The committee had one item on its agenda: a resolution to amend the 2006 Birch Bay Comprehensive Stormwater Plan by incorporating four detailed subwatershed master plans developed over the past decade. What appeared to be routine administrative business actually represented the culmination of years of technical work to address flooding and drainage problems in one of Whatcom County's most environmentally sensitive and development-pressured watersheds. The meeting would test the balance between environmental protection and housing affordability that defines much of the county's current policy challenges. ## The Birch Bay Stormwater Plan Amendment Holly Faulstich from the Public Works Department's stormwater division opened the presentation by explaining the significance of what lay before the committee. As manager of the Birch Bay Watershed & Aquatic Resources Management District (BBWARM), she oversees a special purpose district born from community activism in the early 2000s when residents recognized that rapid development was threatening the water quality and aquatic habitat of Birch Bay. "BBWARM is the product of a community initiated effort from the early 2000s with a goal of protecting and restoring aquatic and water resources in Birch Bay," Faulstich explained. The original 2006 comprehensive stormwater plan had recommended creating a stormwater management district with dedicated funding, leading to BBWARM's establishment in 2007 as a subzone of the county flood control district. By 2009, the district was collecting service fees, had formed a citizen advisory committee, hired staff, and launched a full program in 2010. But as development pressure intensified in the following years, staff realized they needed a more systematic approach. "Over the course of 10 years from 2013 to 2023, four subwatershed master plans were developed for the urbanized areas of the watershed," Faulstich said. These plans had five main objectives: developing accurate inventories of stormwater facilities, analyzing system capacity, identifying infrastructure deficiencies, creating prioritized capital improvement projects, and incorporating those projects into the county's six-year water resources improvement program. The scope of work was impressive. "Collectively, these four plans identify and prioritize 44 capital projects to solve drainage related problems," Faulstich noted. The district has already completed 14 projects, maintaining a pace of approximately one per year. Each project undergoes individual environmental review under the State Environmental Policy Act, ensuring that solutions don't create new problems elsewhere in the watershed. The technical rigor behind the plans emerged as Faulstich described how projects are "scored and ranked based on a variety of criteria, including community and environmental impacts, costs, complexity, and funding opportunities." The goal wasn't simply to build infrastructure, but to "protect water quality, enhance aquatic habitat and reduce stormwater impacts, such as flooding and erosion." ## Questions About Housing Costs and Development Impacts Council Member Ben Elenbaas raised the fundamental tension that runs through much of the county's environmental and land use policy. "When we all run for office, we all say things we want to do, and I think most of us committed to help with the cost of housing," he began. "So when we develop these changes to this plan, is there anything in it that helps with affordable housing or is it all just... because I could see like collectively, it's probably better to do larger wetland projects for the environment. And if you do it collectively, it's probably cheaper per individual household or whatever." It was a pointed question that got to the heart of whether environmental protection necessarily increases housing costs, or whether smart planning can achieve both goals simultaneously. Kraig Olason from the stormwater program acknowledged that housing affordability "wasn't directly considered" in developing the plans, but emphasized the value of the technical information they provide. "What we try to do is make sure this information is available to developers, because we've already done quite a bit of the modeling necessary for them to see what sort of complications they may have in their area," Olason explained. The plans could actually help developers avoid costly surprises by identifying problem areas upfront. "If you don't know up front, you might find that you develop property [and] it's a lot more challenging than maybe another piece." The county has essentially done expensive hydrologic and hydraulic modeling that developers would otherwise have to commission themselves. "It's free. If we've done it, you can look at it. We've got the models and even with the modeling that we've done, we actually have those in house," Olason said. "So I think it's helpful information for anybody... it would be helpful in defining what areas might be more cost effective to develop." ## Advisory Committee Oversight and Technical Review Council Member Jon Scanlon pressed for details about the review process, particularly whether advisory committees had formally recommended the resolution. This reflected ongoing council interest in ensuring that technical recommendations receive proper community and expert vetting before reaching the council level. "Did the BBWARM advisory committee vote to recommend anything on the resolution and the overall plan or any of the subplans?" Scanlon asked. While Olason couldn't confirm a formal vote, he explained that the advisory committee had discussed the benefits of formally adopting the plans "several times" to ensure the technical work wouldn't be lost or overlooked. The practical importance became clear as Olason described how the adoption would help with permit review. "Let's say you want to be able to, as a permit reviewer, look at what's going on in Birch Bay. There's a project proposed, maybe like Horizon or one of those. What's going on downstream? Well, because they're going to be part of the SEPA document, you can reference those and identify that as a concern that should be addressed so that it's not just ignored or not known and then we have more problems downstream." Scanlon appreciated the explanation but noted the challenge of reviewing such extensive technical documents. "It's an 800 page document. It's taken a while to make it through," he said. "I think it is helpful sometimes when we get recommendations from advisory committees because they have the technical expertise and that's helpful to me when I vote on things and make a decision." ## Growth Planning and Infrastructure Capacity The conversation turned to a critical policy question: how do stormwater infrastructure plans relate to the county's comprehensive plan update, which will determine population and job growth targets for the Birch Bay area? Scanlon asked whether the plans would need revision if the comprehensive plan calls for significantly more growth. Olason's response revealed the sophisticated approach the county has taken to growth planning. "Our plan really looks at infrastructure and it looks at what are the constraints currently and then we work towards updating those. We encourage planning to require that there's water quality and water quantity considerations in all of their development." Rather than sizing systems for unlimited growth, the county's strategy focuses on managing runoff through development standards. "We're not trying to build our systems to be so large that they can handle endless growth. A lot of our systems that we put in are essentially to get the water that's coming from offsite across the development to the beach safely because they're getting overwhelmed." The plans assume full buildout of developable land, but with an important caveat: "the expectation that the full buildout would have its own detention and that we would be doing conveyance based on the detention." In other words, new development would be required to manage its own stormwater rather than relying entirely on public infrastructure. ## Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events Council Member Donovan inquired about climate change considerations, particularly given recent extreme weather events that have tested existing systems. Olason's response revealed how recent flooding has shaped the county's approach to infrastructure planning. "When we designed these systems that we put in, we include climate change as a consideration and add another 22% to 100-year events so that we have some additional capacity there because it's really hard to say how things are going to change over time," Olason explained. The 2021 atmospheric river event that devastated parts of the Pacific Northwest had provided a sobering real-world test of existing infrastructure. "What happened in Birch Bay Village in the '21 event, all of those systems designed for 100-year event were overwhelmed so they just all flowed and that's created a huge flood down at the bottom of the hill," Olason said. This experience had led to a fundamental shift in design philosophy. "We've been oversizing them since day one because we don't want to go back and do it again in 10 years. But how much oversizing is needed? That's a question. So we've looked to the county's climate change report as a basis to at least have a point of reference." ## Sea Level Rise and Coastal Infrastructure Challenges The discussion of climate impacts led naturally to questions about sea level rise and its effects on coastal infrastructure. Council Member Donovan noted that tidal effects already influence drainage systems, asking whether sea level rise projections had been incorporated into the planning. Olason's detailed response revealed the complex engineering challenges of managing stormwater in a coastal environment. The county has already built several systems designed to handle the interaction between terrestrial runoff and tidal influences. "We have several systems, like the one on Harborview where they come down into the beach. That's a new outfall. We've enlarged that pipe and we've also allowed for the flooding that used to happen all the time to get into the pipe." Some systems required sophisticated engineering solutions. "We have other pipes that we've done on Beach Way, for example, where it's a continuous pipe to the beach from about 80 feet up at Cedar Avenue... and it actually is under pressure. So we have to put on pressurized... lids for lack of a better word" to prevent them from being blown off by the pressure differential between incoming stormwater and high tides. The engineering analysis had been thorough. "We did some analysis to determine if you got the tides in and you're coming down the hill with the water, how many PSI do you have that could force the lid off the catch basins," Olason explained. The old system had failed whenever stormwater and high tides coincided: "What used to happen is the water come down, the tide's up, so it flood everybody. Now the water is contained and it can push out into the tide regardless of the height." ## Maintenance Challenges and Practical Solutions A lighter moment came when Donovan asked about the trash racks that protect pipe outlets on the beach. Olason's response illustrated the practical challenges of maintaining coastal infrastructure while keeping it safe for public access. "You may recall when we had that big storm, we had one of our citizens... just put in get blown out because we had to put trash racks on the beach to keep kids out of the pipes. And so we didn't get the trash racks off. We didn't even think about it actually. And we had that really big storm and it plugged the pipe and then the pipe backed up and then it flooded this neighborhood." The solution was labor-intensive but necessary: "Now we have to go out and take the pipe racks off in the winter because it's a little cold and wet to climb up the pipe and then put them back in the summer so we don't have kids getting in there." Olason noted with some humor that their goal was "to grow much, much better crops of barnacles because that's not really fun to climb through." Donovan, apparently speaking from experience, agreed: "I remember trying to unplug those. They're not fun when there's like a million pounds of pressure upstream." ## Committee Action and Regional Implications As the meeting approached its noon adjournment deadline, Chair Galloway moved to close the discussion. The technical presentation and question period had consumed nearly the entire allotted time, but Council Member Stremler moved to recommend approval of the resolution. The vote was 2-0, with Council Member Donovan temporarily absent from the chamber. Before formally adjourning, Faulstich mentioned that similar planning was underway in other watersheds. "We're also in the process of implementing a similar subwatershed master plan approach through the Lake Whatcom stormwater utility. We've created one plan for the East Geneva area and a second one is currently underway for West Geneva and the North Shore area. So I'm sure you'll be hearing about those at some point in your future." ## Closing and What's Ahead The meeting adjourned at 11:59 a.m., just under the noon deadline that had shaped the brisk pace of discussion. The committee's recommendation would advance to the full County Council, where council members would act in their capacity as the Whatcom County Flood Control Zone District Board of Supervisors to formally adopt the resolution. The brief but substantive meeting illustrated several themes that run through much of Whatcom County's current policy work: the challenge of balancing environmental protection with housing affordability, the increasing importance of climate adaptation in infrastructure planning, and the value of technical expertise in guiding policy decisions. The 800-page planning document that prompted some groans from council members represented years of detailed engineering and environmental analysis that will shape development patterns in the Birch Bay watershed for decades to come. The approval of these subwatershed master plans represents more than an administrative update to a 2006 planning document. It reflects the county's commitment to using science-based planning to manage one of its most valuable and vulnerable natural resources, while providing developers and the public with the information needed to make sound decisions about where and how to build in an era of climate change and housing pressure.