The International Speedway Corp. racetrack in Marysville has now died a well-deserved death, but some issues linger. In his Nov. 21 letter to the editor John Burkholder, a landowner in the vicinity of the ill-fated track site, charged Snohomish County Citizens Against a Racetrack’s legal counsel, Jeff Eustis with failing to verify statements regarding claims concerning on-site wetlands. It is, however, Mr. Burkholder’s own fact-checking which is in doubt.
In a letter to the state Committee on Economic Development and International Relations, Mr. Eustis represented that the racetrack site included approximately 600 acres of wetlands, a fact based upon a 2001 wetland study by the respected wetland scientists at Adolfson &Associates and upon the county’s 2002 Quilceda Drainage Needs Report.
The Adolfson report was not a “windshield survey” as Mr. Burkholder claims, but a detailed inventory of wetlands and streams prepared after nearly a year of field work conducted between November 2000 and September 2001. A detailed inventory is not the same as a delineation, and Mr. Eustis’s letter did not represent it as such. His letter cited the two reports and included a wetland map from the county’s report.
Mr. Burkholder’s charges are unfounded. It is certainly clear by now that drainage problems presented by high water table and wetlands led to the site’s rejection.
But, then again, Mr. Burkholder also said, “I congratulate Daryl Williams of the Tulalip Tribes for his voice of reason.” That would be the same voice of reason that said NASCAR and fish could live together. All in all, I believe Mr. Burkholder owes Mr. Eustis an apology.
Ernie Fosse
SCAR Steering Committee
Arlington
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
