The Meadowlands ("Lacamas Shores") Biofilter "Rediscovered" - FAQs Below

"Stormwater facility maintenance is necessary to protect streams, lakes, wetlands, and groundwater. Proper maintenance helps ensure that facilities operate as they were designed and that trapped pollutants, such as sediment and oils, are cleaned out so that the facilities do not become pollutant sources." [emphasis mine]
 - Clark County Stormwater Maintenance Manual 2015, Book 4, p.1
Why would anyone oppose improving the water quality going into Lacamas Lake?  The answer is misunderstanding, desire to not spend $$, and inertia.  

8+ years of research has clarified the purpose and design of the Lacamas Shores Biofilter.  (See homepage)  Logic, observation, and some testing show that this clogged biofiltration system is harming the already-impaired Lacamas Lake.

Over the past 30 years, the origin and purpose of the LS Biof​ilter was forgotten and even mythologized.  Bare minimum maintenance became the norm.  Now, correcting years of inaction requires catch-up work by the LS HOA, plus future maintenance costs, but the ROI will be great for LS homeowners and the entire Camas lake community. 

See the FAQs below to clear up some of the myths that have become obstacles to cleaner lake water.
For Lacamas Lake statistics:
​Note:  Official documents have used multiple terms for this property, such as "stormwater treatment facility" and "stormwater runoff disposal system".   The court order that created the LS Biofilter used the phrase "biofilter storm drainage system". 

FAQs

Q:  Is the Lacamas Shores Biofilter a "biofilter" or a "wetland"?  
A:  Both.  A stormwater biofilter is a man-made wetland created to treat stormwater using a biological filter.  The LS Biofilter is not a protected wetland.   Stormwater treatment wetlands protect lakes, rivers, and natural wetlands from polluted water and a required for the City's stormwater permit application to Ecology.  They are exempted from preservation regulations because they serve a higher purpose and require regular maintenance.  In this case, the Lacamas Shores Biofilter was mandated by court order before construction of the Lacamas Shores subdivision could be approved.  Its purpose was to protect the water quality of Lacamas Lake and all downstream shorelines and aquatic ecosystems.  ​
Q:  Did the City and State determine that the Biofilter was a "Water of the US" that cannot be touched without special permits?
A:  No and then yes, but it doesn't matter-the court will decide.  Initially, Ecology and the City stated that the property must have a "biofilter storm drainage system", agreed in a court order to require it, and permitted it.   In the last few years, they have reversed that stance, saying that disrepair turned the land into a protected Water of the US, and the Army Corp agreed.  However, the judge in the CWA case will make the final determination and she is NOT bound by the unofficial or official statements by the  City, Ecology, nor even the Army Corp.  She will look at all evidence presented to determine whether the Biofilter can and is polluting the Lake.  If so, all HOA members will be liable for both attorney's fees and CWA daily fines since September 2020. ​
Q:  Is restoring the Biofilter to the original design (i.e., stormwater running as a sheetflow through grassy wetlands) inconsistent with City, State and Federal regulations?
A:  No.   Restoring the Biofilter is consistent with ALL City, State and Federal guidelines about stormwater treatment wetlands, including those written by the EPA, Ecology, and even the manual from City commissioned for and given to the LS HOA.  While everyone finally agrees that the Biofilter was supposed to treat stormwater when built, the HOA, City and Ecology now say that it has been in disrepair so long that it 1) no longer must, OR 2) that the HOA must start over with new technology regardless of the costs or the years of continued pollution while they figure it out.  While protecting a wetland sounds great, polluting the lake to do so is not.  We can keep the same amount of wetlands, make them healthier, and serve a higher purpose (i.e., cleaning lake water) with no net loss of wetlands.  Right now, the 30 years worth of collected pollutants in the "filter" will either be cleaned out or washed into the Lake.  Does anyone really believe that Lacamas Shores should continue to pour their untreated stormwater into Lacamas Lake without nonstop without consequence?  
Q:  The HOA is being advised by "consultants with expertise in wetland protection, stormwater treatment and local, state and federal regulations", including attorneys.  Why aren't they fixing this? 
A:  Good question.  Consultants only answer the questions you ask them.  Some consultants are better than others.  It is the same with law firms, who, in this case, are billing the insurance company hourly and are experts at collecting HOA assessments.  Unfortunately for the HOA, their attorneys hired consultants who wrote a report that listed multiple ways that the HOA has failed to maintain the Biofilter.  This led to the HOA being sued in state court in addition to the federal Clean Water Act suit.   While the HOA states that the City will not let them fix the Biofilter, they have yet to ask the City for an official appealable statement. 
​
Since no one has a plan to stop the LS Biofilter pollution, which could be stopped/fixed in a matter of months, lawsuits were filed.  It seems egos and a CYA-mentality are halting all progress.  
Picture
Q:    Is the Biofilter a stormwater treatment facility co-mingled with a natural wetland? A type of "mixed use" wetland?
A:    No.  The entire area was required to be separated (i.e., "delineated") from the shoreline wetlands with a berm and concrete bridges to make it a "man-made wetland" for stormwater treatment.  Pipes were laid with filter fabric and areas were graded.  Since mitigation wetlands and stormwater treatment wetlands are mutually exclusive, per the Washington DOE best practices (see BMP T10.30 on page 10-24 (p.991 of the pdf) or the  DOE  website), they cannot coexist.  Therefore, since the two wetland types cannot co-exist, and Court Order and Permit mandated a stormwater treatment biofiltration wetland, the area is ONLY a stormwater treatment wetland, not a mitigation/natural wetland, and must be maintained as such.  ​

Logically speaking, all filters must be cleaned.  For a stormwater treatment wetland, "changing the filter" means annual mowing and removal of the grass clippings and dead vegetation.  This is called "vegetation harvesting"or "removal".  Mitigation wetlands cannot be mowed because that would disturb any wildlife, vegetation, etc. and make it difficult to regrow into a mature habitat.  Up to this point, the City has not allowed the HOA to perform that type of maintenance.
       Note that Camas has officially adopted the DOE's Stormwater Manual via Camas Ordinance 16-019 and Camas CMC 14.02.101, as required by their NPDES Permit.    Clark County specifically adopted BMP T10.30 (see p. 236) in their manual as well.  
Picture
Q:  Do the requirements of the Camas Shoreline Master Program ("Camas SMP") apply to this area? 
A:  No -  the property is grandfathered.  The Camas SMP specifically exempts the Biofilter.  See excerpt below.  Permits are given for specific "uses".  This project's use was approved by the City, State, and an administrative court in 1989 and again via permit.  Restoring the property to the permit conditions is not a "change" of the use of the property.  Therefore, the project is vested and the Camas SMP does not apply. 
​Q:  Do you need a permit to repair an area like the Biofilter?  
A:  No.  Permits are given for a specific "use" or "uses".  There is already a permit for a stormwater treatment wetland and we should legally be able to comply with it.   As far as we know without comprehensive water quality testing, there is no need to expand or otherwise manipulate the system we have.  We just need to repair it so it can function as originally designed/intended.  Administrative courts have already ruled that as long as a project is within the "scope (area) and "intent" (type of use) of the original permit, the property is under local jurisdiction.   As it stands, the City previously asked the HOA to apply for a permit.  That may or may not be the City's current stance.   ​Note that restoring the Biofilter results in no loss of wetland square footage.
​
Q: Does the Critical Area Ordinance apply?
A:  No.  There are multiple exemptions for artificial wetlands that are stormwater facilities.  (Click here to see)    You only need one exemption to be exempt.  While some of these exemptions apply when a biofilter is "created from nonwetland sites", the LS Biofilter was created from a non-wetland site.  This phrase was used to protect areas that were previously natural wetlands now used to dump stormwater into that needed preservation, but has since been deleted from the federal laws.  In fact, those types of stormwater systems are no longer allowed per updates in the science of stormwater treatment and wetland conservation.  Stormwater chemicals are not healthy for the ecosystems. 
       The land the court mandated to be used for the Biofilter was mostly dry land with some emergent wetland "fingers" that were upland of the natural shoreline wetlands.  The permit approved by the court required that the shoreline natural wetland be separated from the biofiltration system.  It was separated by the trail berm, with two concrete water bridges.  This allows for only filtered water to get into the natural wetlands and the Lake from the man-made biofilter wetlands.  The natural wetlands of the Conservancy Zone were purposely cut off from the Biofilter for their own protection from untreated stormwater as well as future alteration.  The entire purpose of stormwater treatment wetlands is to protect natural wetlands - they do not need protection themselves other than maintenance and repair.
        Also, RCW 90.58.030, in its legislative intent, specifically states that "Shorelines of statewide significance may include critical areas as defined by RCW 36.70A.030(5), but that shorelines of statewide significance are not critical areas simply because they are shorelines of statewide significance."  Since the area is a stormwater filtration facility, it is not a critical area.

Q:   How bad can stormwater runoff be?  
A:   Stormwater runoff can be extremely hazardous for ecosystems.  See this article, showing that even a solution of only 5% stormwater runoff can cause various sub-lethal effects to fish and other organisms.  http://blog.mackaysposito.com/low-impact-development-101-the-effect-of-stormwater-pollution. 
       Specifically, toxic algae blooms in Lacamas Lake have increased in frequency and size over the last three years.  2020 is the first year that toxins bloomed as early as April (instead of June or October).  Every algae bloom equals days/weeks of neurotoxin production, which is horrible for the wildlife in the lake.  Those chemicals will either poison something or someone, run downstream, or degrade.   We must take steps to stop toxins from being produced.  Biofilter maintenance is the easiest, cheapest way and will make a QUICK difference.

Q:  Is maintenance of the Lacamas Shores Biofilter a legal requirement?  
A:   Yes, it is a stormwater treatment system and must be maintained in order to perform, according to:
  • Administrative court order: the 1989 Shoreline Hearings Board's Agreed Order of Remand (SHB 88-33) is binding on the City, DOE, Developer, and an environmental group.  The property "shall continue to be governed by the conditions and monitoring program set forth in the existing permit conditions." 
  • Permits:  The 1988 Shoreline Management Substantial Development Permit (Camas Permit No. 590-14-7806 with additional permit conditions) 
    • The initial permit conditions included: "12.  Creation of a homeowners association which will be responsible for monitoring and maintaining the storm drainage system when the developer's responsibility has been completed. These water quality safeguards will be imposed either through a homeowners association charter or deed restriction before conveying title to Lacamas Shores lot buyers."   
    • Additional permit conditions were added pursuant to the above agreed order to create and expand the biofilter. 
    • The 1993 Substantial Development Permit revisions (City of Camas Permit No.  2-87), stemmed from the above permits and agreed order, and added the swale (around the athletic field) to the Biofilter.
  • Contractual obligations: The Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions of Lacamas Shores Development, per the above two documents, hold individual homeowners liable for maintenance.  The Deed of Dedication requires the City to allow the HOA access to the Conservancy Zone (natural shoreline wetlands) in order to perform biofilter maintenance.
  • The Clean Water Act:  Untreated stormwater may not flow into a Water of the US.  

Q:   If the regulations and documents are this clear, why haven't the repairs/maintenance been completed?
A:   Money and complacency.  Over the last 30 years, the full documented history of the property was lost and the intended function of the Biofilter system forgotten.  The long-standing rumor was that the area was a natural wetland and could not be touched.   The Lacamas Shores HOA had not spent money on maintenance of the area for a 20+ year period.  The collective desire of the HOA to save on maintenance costs currently outweighs the desire to do the legally required maintenance or even look into it.  The City is trying to stay out of the controversy.
Picture
Q:  I heard that the area is a "mitigation" or a "protected wetland" and cannot be touched - is that true? 
A:   No, it is a stormwater treatment facility, i.e., a biofilter.  Biofilters, like any filter, requires maintenance.  A "mitigation wetland" is built by developers to offset the destruction of natural wetlands during construction or development - the goal is to replace lost wetland habitat.  While the developer initially planned for the Biofilter to include more houses and a small mitigation wetland, negotiations with the Dept. of Ecology and an environmental group redrew the plans to required a more expensive, extra-large biofiltration stormwater treatment wetland system in their place.  Ecology's goal was to keep water quality at "pre-development standards" and thereby protect the water entering Lacamas Lake and the shoreline forested wetlands in the Conservancy Zone.   Note that the rest of the HOA property was to be "reserved" for future wetlands, in case the pollution load grew to be too much for the current Biofilter to handle.  The excerpt above is from the 1993 magazine article “Wetlands for Stormwater Treatment”, written exclusively about the LS Biofilter and how innovative it was at the time.  Now, every new subdivision must have a biofilter that is maintained and inspected by the City every 5 years. 
Q:   Is there a compromise that could be made to save the trees AND filter the water?
A:   There have been many compromises.  All that is left now is super expensive solutions that are still not as effective as the green technology originally designed and used.  Restoration of the Biofilter results in no net loss of wetlands - it replaces an unhealthy wetland with contaminated soil and trees with a healthy wetland meadow with wildflowers and cleaner water.  

Restoring a treatment wetland results in no net loss of wetland.  This project has been debated since 2014 and each "compromise" implemented as been partially or wholly ineffective.  This is not about saving dying scrub trees that were never meant to grow in a wetland.  
       While the LS HOA has been reluctant to do ANY maintenance, the City has forced their hand a few times.  In 2015, the City required the Bio-swale (added in 1996 to treat water from the eastside of LS) to be re-dug and mowed regularly.   In 2016, the City required a sediment settling pond connected to the Bio-swale to be cleaned out.  In 2019, the City required the HOA to clean out the bubbler pipes.   That repair had a NEGATIVE effective, washing some of the 30 years of phosphorus collected into the Lake, resulting Lacamas Lake having its first winter blooms and  its first April toxic algae bloom (per the DOE toxic algae website).  Blooms continued sporadically through December!  When water flowing across 30 years of dead plant matter washes into Lacamas Lake.  The pipes soon re-clogged as seen in this video.  
       Any other changes to the Biofilter other than restoration/repair become more complex and costly, due to engineering designs and additional permit requirements.  Unlike the original design, those have not been tested and proven on this property for 5 years.   
Here is the newly repaired bubbler pipe inflow with stormwater pouring out into the old channel. June 2020  
It is time for "Extensive Maintenance and Repair" in compliance with the City's standard Stormwater System Inspection process.  ​
Q:   How expensive is this project?
A:   Not as much as you would expect.  In  2016, bids collected for each part of the project totaled between $30,000-$45,000.  In 2020, bids collected totaled $73,459 - $115,610.  At that time, the HOA Reserves were well-funded.   The ROI on this project is huge, both in terms of Lacamas Lake health and in property value improvement.  See the Tax Assessor's List of LS Homes with View Devaluation. In 2014, over $3 million was shown to be lost in Lacamas Shores home devaluations (in a 6-year span).  See the Summary. 
​
Q: Was the Biofilter created from "dry land" and if so, why would we care? 
A:  Yes, it was created in over 80% "dry land", but that is no longer relevant due to the 2019/2020 federal rule changes.  Previously, Section 230.3(o)(2)(vi) exempted all "Stormwater control features constructed to convey, treat, or store stormwater that are created in dry land" from the Waters of the US designation.  This law was repealed and now the exemption is for both "diffuse stormwater runoff and directional sheet flow over upland" AND "Stormwater control features constructed or excavated in upland or in non-jurisdictional waters to convey, treat, infiltrate or store stormwater runoff".  See the EPA/USACE Final Rule.  The LS Biofilter fits both exclusions (not exemptions), as it was called the "upland wetland" in the permit and the DOE communications.  The Biofilter is "upland" of the Conservancy Zone's natural shoreline wetlands that it is supposed to be protecting.
     Note that the "dry land" requirement was not relevant even when it was law.  To make the LS Biofilter, some upland tidbits of emergent wetlands attached to the Conservancy Zone were cut off from the rest of the natural wetlands by the man-made trail berm, connected only by two concrete bridges.  Other parts of the wetland were bull-dozed and turned into a soccer field.   Still others are mowed regularly.  The rest of the "emergent wetlands" expanded to increase the biofiltration system, as planned with the increased water from the new storm drainage piping system.  It was NOT a natural wetland used to treat stormwater.  In fact, using natural wetlands to treat stormwater is not allowed.  See the DOE's Best Management Practices, reference above, explaining that stormwater treatment wetlands must be periodically mowed.  Natural  wetlands, like our shoreline wetlands, must be protected from pollutants.

Q:  How did this controversy start and where are we now? 
A:  Scrub trees overgrew what was once a meadow.  90+ homeowners were affected and some started researching what could be done and discovered that the area was originally called "Meadowlands Park" and was supposed to be a well-maintained stormwater biofilter.  In fact, the LS HOA was created specifically to maintain the Biofilter and to protect the Lake water.  This seemed like an easy fix for a win-win-win.  Unfortunately, a small vocal group of homeowners objected to spending ANY HOA money on something  that did not affect their homes directly (i.e., they did not use the Lake nor could they they see the Lake) and loudly voiced their fears of escalating costs to anyone who would listen.   At that time, the HOA had over $150,000 in reserves and the quoted costs of repairs were less than $45,000.  They were able to get the City to halt the Biofilter work until they could take control of the LS HOA Board.
     Since then, the HOA, directed by the City, has repaired small parts of the system without touching the main part - the Biofilter.  They cleaned out the bubbler pipes, the sediment pond and the Bioswale, but they have refused to touch the broken filtering component, i.e., the 5 acres that are supposed to be graded wetland grasses, i.e., the "bio" of the "biofilter".  The authors of this site continue to inform the City and others about this escalating problem until the Biofilter water is no longer polluting the lake.  The hope is that Lacamas Lake will become cleaner and more vibrant for the benefit of the entire Camas community!   

 . . .  to be continued