Open Letter to County Commissioners about WRIA 18 Proposed Watershed Plan

01 February 2005

Dear Commissioners,

The statements in this letter are pointed and direct however please consider them carefully and don’t dismiss this as just another angry nutcase not worthy of consideration.

It has come to my attention, through local radio and newspaper reporting that you, in concert with local area tribes, government agencies and others, are preparing to commit, possibly, the greatest intrusion of property rights in our nation’s history. This planned action of your Watershed Management Plan will, at least, rival other Clallam County government "takings" and property right violations I have witnessed since I moved to Sequim nine years ago.

Those takings include the designating of a friend of mine’s dry private property as wetland, rezoning at your whim, and preventing him from building his dream home while you build a road, changing the access to Old Olympic Hwy from West to East on Hwy 101, right through a very wet, wetland. area that no private owner could have ever developed in a million years.

The hypocrisy is of such great proportions that it beggars the mind when government agencies can do whatever they want whenever they please to protect or improve their concerns but stop private citizens, that you are elected to serve, (not rule) from protecting their property and assets. Specifically you stop property owners from protecting their homes from river flood waters, while you repair and protect your roads, bridges and Olympic trails from river or other water related damage without following your own guidelines or timetables.

You enforce a blanket designation the Southern foothills from the Elwah River to Chimicum as a "moderate to severe" erosion zone forcing many thousands of dollars added to the cost of building a home in those areas without considering the unique characteristics of each parcel. My neighbor was forced to spend many thousands extra to surround his property with a curtain drain and build two containment ponds that have never had more than a couple of inches of water in the bottom.

Why don’t you just declare that there is no more private property in Clallam County and get it over with. Why don’t you stop aiding and abetting local tribes in their attempt to control public water. You very well know that if you control the water you control the property.

Commissioner Chapman, you especially should be ashamed of your self running as a Republican. Don’t you recognize communism when you see it? Every time you steal another piece of private property rights you take one step closer to totalitarianism. If you will check your history you will find that private property, its rights and protection is what separates us from every other two bit third world country and totalitarian regime.

You could do the property owners of Clallam County a big favor by leaving us alone for a few years.

William Miano

Sequim