A dispute over how Clark County must manage polluted runoff was argued Monday before a three-judge panel from the state Court of Appeals, Division II, in Tacoma.
Each side was given 15 minutes.
The county’s struggle over a stormwater rule, which says newly developed land drain as slowly as it did prior to Euro-American settlement, dates to 2007 when the state Department of Ecology made it a requirement.
First, commissioners adopted a different ordinance and were put on notice by the state they were in violation of their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. Commissioners compromised and adopted a new plan that said the developer can’t make runoff any worse and the county will make up the difference by making off-site watershed improvements at public expense.
Three groups — the Rosemere Neighborhood Association, Columbia Riverkeeper and the Northwest Environmental Defense Center — challenged the compromise to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board. The board ruled that the county’s plan doesn’t provide equal protection to waterways.
