The City Council, on Monday, passed an unexpected four-month, halting all subdivision and building permits inside city limits in the watershed. The emergency moratorium comes in response to he recently released DOE report which says phosphorus-laden runoff needs to be reduced by 74% in order to get the lake back to a "normal" level.

I have not seen the TMDL report yet, and if/when I do, I'm not sure I'll be able to find time to read it. I could cut sleep out of my life, but I'm not so sure that would be helpful.

According to the Herald, 3,600 Lake Whatcom Watershed acres have been developed, and current zoning allows for development of 10,400 more.

Here's the rub, as I see it. On one side, we have the TMDL report from DOE, and it pretty much lays out what we as a city/county have to do. We have to get the phosphorus levels in the lake reduced by X percentage. I don't know if there is a timeline on that. On the other side, we have an entire local industry that has just been hit in the celiac plexus with a devastating, unanticipated blow. We are in a serious ramp-up time for construction, and a significant portion of that is now going to grind to a halt. It's like building a race car, being on the track, engines started, and the announcer calling out that the race has been canceled.

Barbara Ryan says the emergency moratorium is necessary in order to prevent a permit rush similar to what we recently saw with the county.

So, the fireworks are about to fly... well, if you read the comments on the Herald article, they are already flying.

There will be a public hearing on the ban within 60 days, and we will post details on that as soon as we have them.

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