Category: Environmental

Our firm is pleased to announce a recent appeal we filed on behalf of a local organization, the Olympia Urban Waters League, from a City of Olympia land use and State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) decision. The appealed decision approved a real estate development in the vicinity of an urban stream, Moxlie Creek, a salmon-bearing stream which runs under downtown Olympia in a culvert.

In the League’s initial appeal brief, we argue that the decision fails to acknowledge the proposed development would cause probable, significant, adverse environmental impacts to the water quality in the Moxlie Creek watershed and Budd Bay estuary where it empties. These impacts arise because the development would take up land located at the mouth of a historic estuary which is apparently needed to remedy significant water quality issues in the Bay, including low dissolved oxygen and high levels of nitrates, through a creek daylighting project. Removing urban waterways from buried culverts and exposing them once again to the air is associated with various environmental benefits, and cities around the United States have benefited from creek daylighting efforts. You can read a copy of our initial appeal brief here:

You can read more about our client’s perspective on Moxlie Creek and the positive effects of daylighting buried urban creeks at their website, https://urban-waters.com/, and their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/OUWLs/.