The non-troversy over a sea plane float dock in Lake Whatcom continues... kinda.
A summary...
For some the American Dream is to own a home with a white picket fence and to see one's children go to college and have a brighter future, like in a Norman Rockwell painting.
For some the American Dream is to take an idea and make it into a burgeoning small business, like Benjamin Franklin.
And for some, like Doug Tomczak, the American Dream is to be able to fly your sea plane to your second home on Lake Whatcom so as not have to be stuck in gridlock King County traffic with the non-sea plane owning kooks who just want to harsh your buzz.
Mr. Tomczak's version of the American Dream is being championed by the freedom fighters in the sea plane owning community.
View the words of the oppressed minority of sea plane owners HERE.
Let's examine some of the more choice quotes from that post...
[In the interest of full disclosure, the lady in question is Wendy Harris, my wife.]
So, I'll start with the "their" environment which is placed in what I can only assume is intended to be air quotes.
Yeah, it's "our" environment, propeller heads. It belongs to all of us, not just you. Deal with it.
Moving on to the statement that Wendy "doesn't even live on the lake".
Well, true. It is also true that Mr. Tomczak doesn't even live in Whatcom County. He lives in King County. Wendy, and about 100,000 other Whatcom County residents rely on Lake Whatcom as our sole source of potable drinking water.
The harrowing tale of the sea plane community continues...
Regarding Wendy's statement that "There is no established need for a float plane..." Well, there is no established need for a float plane dock on Lake Whatcom. Mr Tomczak's property isn't on some island in the middle of the lake, it's accessible by the same infrastructure of roads that everyone else uses.
Regarding Wendy's statement about rich people and their toys... has the sea plane community read a paper in the last 18 months? It's tough out here in the non-sea plane owning world. If you can afford a sea plane to commute to your second home, I'm guessing you aren't worried about your next mortgage payment or how you are going to pay for your next trunk load of groceries.
Regarding "the facts (as she sees them) that the quality of the Lake water is in rapid decline due to phosphorous and low oxygen levels"... well those are the facts as the Departement of Ecology and pretty much everyone else who actually LIVES HERE sees the facts as well. Remember, none of these sea plane advocates who have sounded off on this matter actually live in Whatcom County.
Regarding the risk of invasive species are concerned, I return to an inconvenient fact about the nature of Zebra Mussels in particular and the risk posed to the City of Bellingham in particular.
If Zebra Mussels are introduced into Lake Whatcom, then the City of Bellingham will be compelled to build a redundant system for water intake from the lake to deal with the presence of said Zebra Mussels. Zebra Mussels are known to aggressively clog intake systems for municipal water sources. The cost for such a redundancy would be multiple millions of dollars, the overwhelming bulk of which will have to be born by citizens who are neither sea plane owners nor lake side land owners.
I for one am not interested in being exposed to increased risk of introduction of invasive species into Lake Whatcom just because some dude with a sea plane thinks it would be way cool to easily land one on Lake Whatcom.
Now, on to the most delicious quote from this forum thread...
Ah, praise for Bobbink, and criticism for Wendy... the kook.
Protecting drinking water, being concerned about Invasive Species, and pointing out that a sea plane float dock is an undeniable luxury... makes one a kook. Then kooks we be.
As far as what constitutes a sensible leader, in the eyes of these sea plane freedom fighters a sensible leader is apparently a rubber stamp wearing a judge's robe. I think I have enough fingers on one hand to count the number of Conditional Use Permits that Judge Bobnick has denied in his illustrious career as the Whatcom County Hearings Examiner.
To the sea plane freedom fighters the problems we face in Whatcom County in general and Bellingham in specific are just abstractions that serve only as rhetorical obstacles to their goal of full freedom of sea plane use, as the authors of the Constitution originally intended... over 100 years before the invention of fixed wing aircraft.
The Founding Fathers were visionaries, indeed.
But I still don't want any bonus sea planes on my drinking water. Thanks anyway. Go place someone else's drinking water at risk, Champions of the Air.
Oh, and thanks a pantload for nothing, Judge Bobbink.
I wouldn't worry about water quality either if my drink of choice was stamp ink.
A summary...
For some the American Dream is to own a home with a white picket fence and to see one's children go to college and have a brighter future, like in a Norman Rockwell painting.
For some the American Dream is to take an idea and make it into a burgeoning small business, like Benjamin Franklin.
And for some, like Doug Tomczak, the American Dream is to be able to fly your sea plane to your second home on Lake Whatcom so as not have to be stuck in gridlock King County traffic with the non-sea plane owning kooks who just want to harsh your buzz.
Mr. Tomczak's version of the American Dream is being championed by the freedom fighters in the sea plane owning community.
View the words of the oppressed minority of sea plane owners HERE.
Let's examine some of the more choice quotes from that post...
As with most communities, there are always those that feel they are the experts and panic at the first hint of someone trying to ruin "their" environment. In this case, a lady who doesn't even live on the lake opposed the idea and claimed... "There is no established need for a float plane and given the relatively high risk of introducing invasive species, including the zebra mussel in lake Whatcom, this poses a substantial risk to public health and safety by endangering the County's primary source of potable water." With that opening statement, she attached a 3 page letter quoting Washington Codes on how introduction of invasive species is prohibited by law and claims the transfer of Zebra Mussels has already been documented.
[In the interest of full disclosure, the lady in question is Wendy Harris, my wife.]
So, I'll start with the "their" environment which is placed in what I can only assume is intended to be air quotes.
Yeah, it's "our" environment, propeller heads. It belongs to all of us, not just you. Deal with it.
Moving on to the statement that Wendy "doesn't even live on the lake".
Well, true. It is also true that Mr. Tomczak doesn't even live in Whatcom County. He lives in King County. Wendy, and about 100,000 other Whatcom County residents rely on Lake Whatcom as our sole source of potable drinking water.
The harrowing tale of the sea plane community continues...
The hearing started and was mediated by Judge Michael Bobbink. Doug was asked if he had read and understood the Permit documents from the County and he said yes. He then asked if there was any other comments and Wendy Harris approached. It became obvious that she was a regular at these hearings as she was on a first name basis with everyone present. She had a litany of concerns starting with no established need for a Seaplane as adequate means of transportation were available to get to and from the subject property by car or boat, to a tirade against rich people and their insatiable need for toys, then to the facts (as she sees them) that the quality of the Lake water is in rapid decline due to phosphorous and low oxygen levels and then on to invasive species especially relating to Quagga and Zebra Mussels.
Regarding Wendy's statement that "There is no established need for a float plane..." Well, there is no established need for a float plane dock on Lake Whatcom. Mr Tomczak's property isn't on some island in the middle of the lake, it's accessible by the same infrastructure of roads that everyone else uses.
Regarding Wendy's statement about rich people and their toys... has the sea plane community read a paper in the last 18 months? It's tough out here in the non-sea plane owning world. If you can afford a sea plane to commute to your second home, I'm guessing you aren't worried about your next mortgage payment or how you are going to pay for your next trunk load of groceries.
Regarding "the facts (as she sees them) that the quality of the Lake water is in rapid decline due to phosphorous and low oxygen levels"... well those are the facts as the Departement of Ecology and pretty much everyone else who actually LIVES HERE sees the facts as well. Remember, none of these sea plane advocates who have sounded off on this matter actually live in Whatcom County.
Regarding the risk of invasive species are concerned, I return to an inconvenient fact about the nature of Zebra Mussels in particular and the risk posed to the City of Bellingham in particular.
If Zebra Mussels are introduced into Lake Whatcom, then the City of Bellingham will be compelled to build a redundant system for water intake from the lake to deal with the presence of said Zebra Mussels. Zebra Mussels are known to aggressively clog intake systems for municipal water sources. The cost for such a redundancy would be multiple millions of dollars, the overwhelming bulk of which will have to be born by citizens who are neither sea plane owners nor lake side land owners.
I for one am not interested in being exposed to increased risk of introduction of invasive species into Lake Whatcom just because some dude with a sea plane thinks it would be way cool to easily land one on Lake Whatcom.
Now, on to the most delicious quote from this forum thread...
Although we may get a moment's rush of joy at the outcome of this saga, it is only a fleeting moment. Every community has at least one kook like Ms. Harris. Not every community has a sensible leader like Judge Bobbink.
Ah, praise for Bobbink, and criticism for Wendy... the kook.
Protecting drinking water, being concerned about Invasive Species, and pointing out that a sea plane float dock is an undeniable luxury... makes one a kook. Then kooks we be.
As far as what constitutes a sensible leader, in the eyes of these sea plane freedom fighters a sensible leader is apparently a rubber stamp wearing a judge's robe. I think I have enough fingers on one hand to count the number of Conditional Use Permits that Judge Bobnick has denied in his illustrious career as the Whatcom County Hearings Examiner.
To the sea plane freedom fighters the problems we face in Whatcom County in general and Bellingham in specific are just abstractions that serve only as rhetorical obstacles to their goal of full freedom of sea plane use, as the authors of the Constitution originally intended... over 100 years before the invention of fixed wing aircraft.
The Founding Fathers were visionaries, indeed.
But I still don't want any bonus sea planes on my drinking water. Thanks anyway. Go place someone else's drinking water at risk, Champions of the Air.
Oh, and thanks a pantload for nothing, Judge Bobbink.
I wouldn't worry about water quality either if my drink of choice was stamp ink.
As a update to the cited blog comment, which can be found at http://seaplaneforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=486&view=next, DOE denied the Conditional Use Permit for the seaplane, (the applicant also requested a dock for 2 boats, which no one objected too and which is not at issue.) The applicant has appealed the denial.
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