Welcome to Issue #2! The Latest – Our Grant From Patagonia Save the Cedar River is pleased to announce that we are the recipient of a $20,000 environmental grant from outfitter Patagonia. This grant will advance our cause by enabling us to fund the upcoming legal challenge to the permits once they are issued. According to Patagonia’s Grant Guidelines, the company “supports environmental organizations with bold, direct-action agendas and a commitment to long-term change. Because we believe that the most direct path to real change is through building grassroots momentum, our funding focuses on organizations that have or can create a strong base of support.” A BIG thank you to Kate Bauwer for all of her hard work on the grant application. You can read more about the grant here. Please do patronize Patagonia when you have the opportunity. Thanks, Patagonia!
Donors, Need an Acknowledgement for Your Taxes? Have you donated to Citizens to STOP the SR169 Asphalt Plant Legal Fund (our legal name) or Save the Cedar River (our DBA) in 2019 and need an acknowledgment for your tax return? Send a note with your mailing address to noasphalt169@gmail.com and we’ll get a letter out to you. Thank you, donors! Letter From King County Department of Local Services On November 18, 2019, the King County Department of Local Resources, Permitting Division (formerly known as DPER), sent Lakeside Industries a 12-page letter requesting more information about the project. The list of requests is extensive, and we suggest everyone review it – it will answer many of your questions about the permitting process. You can find the letter here.
Our Next Community Meeting is on April 4 Our next community meeting will be held Saturday, April 4 from 3:30-5 p.m. at the City of Renton Library in downtown Renton at 100 Mill Ave S, Renton, WA 98057. Please do attend to hear the latest on the permitting process. Our Next Protest is on Saturday, March 14, from 2-4 p.m. Assemble at the site of the proposed asphalt plant, 18825 Renton-Maple Valley Rd, Renton, WA 98058.
Amazon Smile Did you know that you can support our cause when you shop on Amazon? Just go to smile.amazon.com and select Citizens To Stop the Sr169 Asphalt Plant Legal Fund as your charitable organization. That’s it – Amazon will make a contribution whenever you shop. Every bit adds up.
How You Can Help There are multiple ways you can help our cause: Contribute to the legal fund. Our lawyer is excellent but good lawyers are expensive and when we go to trial to stop the plant before it gets built the costs will be high, to say the least. Options include:
Mail a check payable to: Save the Cedar River PO Box 1052 Maple Valley WA 98038
GoFundMe Charity (formerly CrowdRise). Go online to https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/savecedarriver
Put up “No Asphalt on the Cedar River” and “Save The Cedar River” signs. You likely have already seen these signs. Putting them everywhere spreads the word and gets more people into the fight. Sign or share our Change.org petition. Currently, we have nearly 7,000 signatures. Go to www.SaveTheCedarRiver.org for more information. Share our videos with others. We have two professionally produced videos (short and long) that support our cause. Links: https://youtu.be/UiDBOuaoIhI and https://youtu.be/H7j--biLWzg. Volunteer. Everyone has something that they can contribute. Contact us at noasphalt169@gmail.com to learn more. Attend Community Meetings. Sat., April 4, 3:30-5 at the Renton Public Library, 100 Mill Ave S, Renton, WA 98057. Send a letter or email to King County’s permitting department. King County’s permitting department, which will be responsible for determining if an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is required, is called the Department of Local Services, Permitting Division. Their mailing address is:
35030 SE Douglas Street, Suite 210 Snoqualmie, WA 98065-9266.
The program/project manager for this is Fereshteh Dehkordi.
Fereshteh.Dehkordi@KingCounty.gov
The permit application numbers are: COMM18-0014 and SHOR18-0032. When you sent a note, request that an EIS be mandated for this project. Thank you to the Save the Cedar River Team!