The sands of time are running out for the public to comment on the recently released 2011 Settlement Agreement. That deadline looms and it is set as September 9, 2011. All comments can be emailed to DuPont City Clerk, Erin Larsen (elarsen@ci.dupont.wa.us). The city of DuPont has dedicated a page to information and a document repository.

I have had an opinion on the matter for nearly four years now. Some of you may have first heard about the proposed mine expansion from me at that time. It is that proposed expansion that necessitated the whole renegotiation of the 1994 Settlement Agreement, after all. I won’t go into all the gory (i.e. boring) details. They are well documented here and elsewhere.

Some of those who joined my commentary midway through this issue may be mistaken at my motivations for opposing the CalPortland (formerly Glacier Northwest) mine expansion. I am neither aligned nor affiliated with the Sequalitchew Creek Watershed Council. I am sympathetic to their efforts, but mainly because they are also opposed to the mine expansion for different reasons. Think of it as going to a Mariner’s game. They may be cheering for the M’s but I am there to cheer against their opponent. Different motivation, same goals, and hopefully the same result.

One of the first distinctions between me and the SCWC would be that I do not hate CalPortland, mining, or big business. I am not particularly environmentally conscious beyond giving a hoot (I was raised by the same Saturday morning cartoons as the rest of you).

Nor am I in denial that when properly regulated, industry and nature can coexist for the benefit of a community. I get it. But, I am also somewhat cynical, and not in the classical sense. I find it all well and good that the creek and marshes are the SCWC focus, but to be honest, their rubber didn’t hit the road until there were plans to significantly increase the size of the mine; and dewater in order to do it.

The mine expansion is sold to us as a grand opportunity for a restoration project; first from CalPortland, then later from the Sequalitchew Creek Watershed Council. It was only then that the Sequalitchew Creek became a jewel of a resource to the City of DuPont and its residents. From that point forward, it was two opposing groups trying to sell me the same used car: a 1974 Chevy Vega.

The sales pitch was simple. This long damned and diverted, garbage strewn and weed choked creek could one day be restored to its former glory. The problem with this argument, just like the ‘74 Vega, is that it sat unused and unappreciated for years. People weren’t too excited by the Vega when it was new and shiny and it will take buckets full of money to restore to its original condition. However, the thought of losing that ‘74 Vega from the backyard was too much for some to bear.

That is their front, that is their fight. It just would have been nice for the motivated folks at the SCWC to paint a clearer picture for those less passionate about the creek or who may view city matters on the periphery. It sounds like a good idea but what can and should Sequalitchew Creek be? Only then will you get people excited about joining the effort to preserve, in the least, or restore the creek.

But the purpose here is not to bash the few motivated people who care enough to try to fix something. They are sticking their necks out, and in DuPont, that usually means they are the easy candidate for the chopping block. Far be it for me to discourage someone willing to call out City Hall.

For me, I oppose an expansion of the mine based on nothing more than vision. That would be vision for DuPont in case anyone from City Hall is listening, reading, or considering a point of view that may challenge their own.

Since DuPont was settled, its vision was largely conceived, implemented, and governed by those who have lived elsewhere. It existed as a place on a map. A place defined by its proximity to other places. First the water, then the trees, then the Fort. DuPont was a port, and trading post, a manufacturing plant, a wasteland, and finally a bedroom community that sits atop glacial deposited sand and rock. The merchants needed DuPont. So did the foresters and government; and DuPont has held up its end of the bargain with little complaint, and with little resistance.

DuPont has also paid a dear price for its servitude.

DuPont very well could have been a place that ‘used to be.’ A place that would have faded in Washington’s collective memory much in the same manner that the relics and disgraces from the dynamite plant faded into the wooded landscape. A village buffered from some wetlands and trees by a rusting chain link fence. Now that the current plats are built out we are offered a contemplative pause on where we came from and where we are going. With the current growth abating we are now afforded the opportunity to conduct a community inventory of our values, and more importantly, our vision.

DuPont is approaching a period with a static population. A period without the pressures and influences of the residential growth. Fewer and fewer tractor trailers delivering the materials for ready-made (fabricated elsewhere, of course) houses. Fewer contractor vans. Fewer building permits and inspections.

A contemplative pause.

Now that we have come this far it is time to re-evaluate the journey. Are we still heading in the right direction? Are we even the same as we were before we left? And, where is it, again, that we are going?

For the entire time that I have lived in DuPont, this city has been a building permit issuing machine. Our City Hall’s function was primarily in support of the vision conceived and actively pursued by others. We were told that by continuing to build that our tax burden would decrease, the burden would be shared; but, the reality is that we lost some services when we encountered some new obstacles.

Some were mistaken in believing that if we continued to build that our history would be somehow be preserved and garner increased interest. Yet through our growth we are actually losing some of that history while we grapple with our identity. And, we were also naive enough to believe that if we continued to grow then our town would become a destination for new businesses and merchants; yet we lack some of the most basic services while the large businesses that signed on in the beginning remain alone on the landscape.

This period of pause can allow us to look up from the city’s ‘plan’ in order to view our reality. The paramount question that needs to be asked, not only during this time but before every vote is cast by council and the citizens alike, is who will benefit from our city’s plan? The collective answer to that question ends up being our vision.

I contend that until this point that vision is a product of others from elsewhere. Whether we realize it or not, now is the time to take firm control of DuPont’s vision. We live here and we will hand off the consequences to the future. Successful visions of the past are silently enjoyed while failed visions, or worse yet, no vision, are publicly cursed. You know these arguments because they often start with the words: What were they thinking?

I think the easiest way to begin is with your own vision of DuPont and not you were told by the builder, realtor, or City Hall when you chose to live here. For whatever DuPont wants to be, it is, in fact, a suburb. Too far to be a suburb of Olympia or Tacoma, it ended up being a suburb of Joint Base Lewis McChord. It is a bedroom community with generally quiet streets and generally decent schools and a generally lower property tax rate.

I realize that it is difficult to conceptualize vision. In the past they were the providence of both wise men and the insane. But for your frame of reference, the following is the vision of DuPont, Washington as stated in their Comprehensive Plan.

DuPont: A model small city known for its planned setting and hometown sense of community – a place that blends its natural beauty and Rich Northwest history with a proactive approach to its future.

How does a 700 acre hole in the ground support this stated purpose?

Contemplative pause.

I scrapped my last vision since no one could accurately paint the picture of just how the creek would be restored, or where the fish would come from or whether they could thrive. I was hoping this MOU period would have been about forming a coalition between the city, the Department of Defense, the State and Tribes, Burlington Northern, and the environmental groups. I had visions of a salmon hatchery similar to the one in Issaquah that sits predominately in the center of town; school buses parked along the street. A yearly festival celebrating the Salmon. People standing on the Center Drive Bridge mesmerized at the scene below.

No, I awoke from that dream.

My vision now is much more pragmatic. A vision that is radical because it stands counter to everything we know of this town since the advent of Northwest Landing. It is contrary to our comprehensive plan, the builders plan, the military rental community’s plan, and certainly to CalPortland’s plan. I suppose that I arrived at this point because I wasn’t hearing from our leaders, elected or otherwise. After careful consideration of where we appear to be now, and factoring in where it is proposed that we go, I have concluded that a significant part of our future should not include new housing.

That is, of course, what is planned for that mine pit once all the gravel has been exhausted. But the hard question we need to ask ourselves is how have we done with the housing we do have? And, that includes the housing in the Historic Village. If we are honest in attaining that answer we may very well be uneasy with the direction we are tacking toward.

Take for instance, as we see the decreasing new house permits issued by city hall we are also seeing fewer of these Quadrant houses owner occupied. Take a drive around any of the “villages” and you will notice more and more signs alerting passersby to a home for rent. This is not entirely attributable to the economy of the past few years. Even after the real estate boom there was still evidence of speculation and opportunity to turn a quick buck. Others are choosing to wait out the financial storm, and with JBLM, why not? The problem is that this does not bode well for the City coffers. DuPont currently cannot meet their obligations to pay their debt on the Civic Center and the missing Real Estate Excise Tax (REET) is a large contributor to this dilemma.

If you are thinking that this financial crisis will eventually abate and this shouldn’t be a worry then consider our infrastructure. How will the home owners of twenty years hence leave their new village of Aggregate Acres? The same way the residents of Hoffman Hill will be leaving then, which is to say, the same way they leave now. A single conga line of traffic. Where will the kids go to school? Will the added community mean that there is finally funds to have full EMT service for our fire department? How big will our Police department be and what will the response times be in the pit? How will having a neighborhood so disconnected reconcile itself with the walkability aspect of our original plan?

Contemplative pause.

*sigh*

The point is that we haven’t figured out how to efficiently run the town as it stands now. Adding a new residential space does not solve any of our problems, it actually exacerbates them. The current green space near the mine and overlooking Puget Sound can be our greatest asset in the future. Unfortunately, we never pause long enough to realize it.