The hearing on the following appeal has been set for December 4, 2000, the earliest that it can be heard. We will keep you informed of any changes or developments.

 Thursday, April 20, CROWD, on its own behalf and on behalf of its members, filed a Notice of Appeal against the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department (TPCHD), Land Recovery, Inc. and Resource Investments, Inc. before the Pollution Control Hearings Board. The Weyerhaeusers also filed Thursday.

The main grounds for this appeal have to do with the water being withdrawn, Senate Bill 5729 and the issuance of the solid waste permit on March 21,2000 by the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department (TPCHD). One interesting aspect of this issuance of the solid waste permit is that the TPCHD modified the solid waste permit to alter the definition of "construction". The TPCHD explained the modification as follows: Replace the verbiage "Construction means any activity involving..." with "Construction means the building of.." The verbiage "any activity involving" was viewed as too inclusive.

The attorney for CROWD states in the Notice of Appeal that the definition of construction in Section V(1) of the solid waste permit is directly pertinent to the issue of SSB 5729's application to the landfill and the TPCHD's modification of Section V(1) to narrow the definition of "construction" is an obvious, after-the-fact and unlawful attempt to avoid application of SSB 5729 to the landfill.