Victory in Sight on the Chelatchie Bluff Surface Mining Overlay (SMO)!
Photo of Chelatchie forest from Clark County government website
The Clark County Council recently gave unanimous direction to move forward with repealing the Chelatchie Bluff surface mining overlay (SMO) over environmentally sensitive forest land in response to the Washington Court of Appeals ruling in FOCC’s favor on the matter, which would bring the county back into compliance with state law. To learn more about this issue, you can read up on it here.
Consideration for repeal of the ordinance then went before the Planning Commission at a public hearing, where there was unanimous support for removing the overlay as well. Next stop for the Chelatchie SMO repeal: the Clark County Council for the final hearing on May 20th!
If you care about this issue, please consider preparing to submit written public comments or testify at the final Clark County Council hearing, and be sure to keep up to date by following us on social media and looking out for our Weekly Radars on Mondays to make sure you get the meeting information when it’s posted.
For now, we’ll leave you with the statement our pro bono lawyer, David McDonald, made to the Columbian after our win at the Court of Appeals:
“Today’s unanimous decision vindicates every person in Clark County and their right to know what the environmental consequences might be before our elected officials contemplate a decision that is reasonably likely to significantly harm our county’s sensitive habitats and lands. Friends of Clark County’s tenacity over the past three years serves as a reminder that people with money and power should, to paraphrase Margaret Mead, never underestimate the power of a small group of thoughtful, committed people to achieve positive change.”