The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is threatening to fine the city of Tacoma $2.4 million for missing deadlines on the cleanup of the contaminated Thea Foss and Wheeler-Osgood waterways.
The city already has missed deadlines for two elements of the project and expects to miss the overall deadline of Dec. 31 by about two months.
City officials were hoping for an extension, but EPA officials – concerned about the city’s long history of delays on the project – aren’t budging.
City officials said they were stunned by the announcement, calling it “punitive” and “unconscionable.” They intend to challenge the EPA’s action, while continuing to work as fast as they can to finish the cleanup.
The News Tribune
Bellingham: Three arrested in crack case
Three Lummi tribal members were arrested Friday for allegedly selling crack cocaine.
Lummi police arrested Janet Ann Lane, 67; Tanya M. Smith, 35; and Brian Luke Edward Lane, 46, about 3 p.m. in the 4300 block of Lummi Shore Road, said Lummi spokesman Aaron Thomas.
Lummi police did not release the amount of crack cocaine recovered. The arrests come at the tail end of the tribe’s regional conference on drug addiction this week.
The three people, who were booked in Whatcom County Jail, will be charged in Lummi Tribal Court and are not eligible for bail, Thomas said.
Bellingham Herald
Driver arrested after truck strikes house
Al and Adette Kiefer awoke about 5 a.m. Thursday to find a truck in their living room.
The driver, Al Kiefer’s brother Dan Kiefer, 41, was arrested by the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office and booked into jail, said Sheriff Bill Elfo. He was being held on investigation of assault, burglary, malicious mischief and felony harassment, Elfo said.
“We’ve got shards of glass penetrated through the sides of the wall,” Al Kiefer said.
The Dodge Dakota went entirely into the living room. Damage is estimated at $50,000 to $60,000, Al Kiefer said.
Bellingham Herald
Olympic Peninsula: Angler’s body found
A body found by a hiker on a remote Olympic Peninsula beach was identified Saturday as that of Jerome Lee Green Jr., a Quinault tribal fisherman missing for the past month.
The hiker found the body Wednesday on a beach near Jagged Island, about six miles north of La Push.
Green, 45, was reported missing April 15 after he failed to return from a solo fishing trip aboard his crab boat, the Huntress. The Coast Guard found his boat drifting on autopilot 16 miles south of Grays Harbor.
The Clallam County medical examiner ruled his death an accidental drowning.
Associated Press
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