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HomeMy WebLinkAboutC_Comment_Letter_Response_210406.pdfFrom: Matthew Herrera Sent: Tuesday, April 6, 2021 6:01 PM To: N R; Council; Armondo Pavone; Randy Corman; Ed Prince Subject: RE: Cedar River Apartments development. Hi Nicola, I have added your comments to the project file. I also wanted to provide some information on the contamination and monitoring. The cleanup and the current monitoring is a result of the contamination caused by the site’s prior use as a concrete batch plant and gravel facility. When the City adopted the Wellhead Protection Area regulations, the owner was required to cease operations of the facility due its proximity to the City’s well. The property owner then worked with the State Department of Ecology to cleanup the site and the monitoring was put in place to ensure any additional lingering hazardous materials post cleanup do not enter the groundwater. The proposed residential and commercial development would be required to construct the improvements to all current codes in effect such as capturing and treating all stormwater generated on the site. Additionally, as part of the environmental covenant, no infiltration of captured stormwater would be permitted. Thank you for your comments on the Cedar River Apartments land use application. Matt Herrera, AICP - Senior Planner City of Renton Community & Economic Development 1055 S. Grady Way Renton, WA 98057-3232 425.430.6593 -----Original Message----- From: N R <bizbuzz135@outlook.com> Sent: Tuesday, April 6, 2021 10:34 AM To: Matthew Herrera <MHerrera@Rentonwa.gov>; Council <Council@Rentonwa.gov>; Armondo Pavone <APavone@Rentonwa.gov>; Randy Corman <Rcorman@Rentonwa.gov>; Ed Prince <EPrince@Rentonwa.gov> Subject: Cedar River Apartments development. Importance: High CAUTION: This email originated from outside the City of Renton. Do not click links, reply or open attachments unless you know the content is safe. Good morning everyone, I hope you are all doing well? Matthew I have taken the liberty of copying and pasting the next paragraph from one of your informative and helpful emails because I would like to make a comment about the 'Covenant' issue built into the development guidelines. Quote: The current owner of the Cedar River Apartments site entered into a cleanup plan with the State Department of Ecology. As part of that plan, the owner was required to cleanup and then have the agency periodically review post-cleanup conditions. An environmental covenant has been recorded on the property that contains requirements for ongoing monitoring wells, data collection, and reporting. The covenant also restricts the use of stormwater infiltration facilities and any extraction or alteration of the site’s groundwater. End of quote. The covenants that are built into the development regarding ongoing monitoring of the aquifer, are simply saying there is an ongoing risk of the water supply being contaminated. Once the monitoring reveals contamination it is too late. How many types and incidents of contamination are acceptable, regardless of actions taken to try and rectify those events? The covenants are telling us that our water supply at that location is not safe. Can anyone say with 100% certainty say that the aquifer is safe from contamination? Are you willing to take that risk? Does anyone else see some degree of absurdity in all this juggling and manipulation of contracts just to be able to push this development through? These maneuvers are legal, yes, but will they serve the greater good and future populations? Matthew, the link you sent to me for the Water Utility Engineering page on the cities web-site was helpful. You helped me understand the way technical issues are written. Specifically, that the Well Recharge Protection area is the same as Zone 1 of the Aquifer protection area. I also understand this is under the protection of the Environmental Protection Agency? My concerns from reading the Water Utility Engineering page, is that there did not seem to be any mention of global warming and climate change? There didn't seem to be any new approach to issues around our water source? The ongoing process has been to utilize current and past data, in order to generate various scenarios and actions to take - there were no projections associated with climate change that I could see? There was a 'Crisis' scenario - is that the one that is associated with climate change? If the individuals that built dams, and altered water courses had been more concerned about the environment, known what impacts these would have on salmon runs which has much father reaching impacts on other species as well as indigenous populations at the time, would they have made other choices? We have the knowledge and awareness regarding climate change. Would it be the most beneficial now and to future generations to make this the driving force and motivation for decisions made? Thank you for your time and all that you do for this unique and great city. Nicola 425 255 5160 Resident since 1985.