Good Things Happen When You Refuse To Give Up

[lcap]

Last week I had my hearing with the State of Washington and my Local Assessors office to appeal my property taxes on my condemned house. No one, including the Assessor thought I could ever get close to a zero value because it has never been done in this State. I made history. The only reason we agreed to $1,000 on the land and $1,000 on the improvements is the Assessor was concerned if they entered $0.00 as the Judge requested, the property would "fall off the tax rolls and be lost forever. The County building department could then allow a new house to be constructed on my landfill." I agreed that the property needed to be tracked so the $1,000 for the Land, $1,000 for Improvements (dock, bulkhead, boat launch) and $0.00 for the house.

The impossible isn't always impossible so long as you keep fighting.

[DRAGON88]

Wow, congrats Dan. I know it's been a crazy uphill battle, although I admit that I probably can't imagine how crazy or uphill it has been.

[senorbueno]

Congrats...

Alright, I missed/did not understand some parts of how you got to where you are now in terms of the property. Do you have to eat what you've already invested into the home/and, or is the city/builder/insurance/whoever refunding you some?

[shaggyboarder]

Congrats.

[jryoung]

Only someone as bull headed as you would be willing to follow that through. I mean that as a compliment, there are far too many that would have given up and walked away.

I was in the neighborhood over the weekend (my brother lives off 253rd and 157th), had I not been so pressed for time I would have tried to stop by to see this first hand.

[Okie Boarder]

Good for you.

[lcap]

The property was created--it was the Lake before a developer illegally dredged one part of the lake and then filled this property with trees, stumps, garbage--10' on average. The County has 8 letters from concerned citizens about the illegal dredging and filling and did nothing.

Then the Department of Ecology came in and attempted to make the property unbuildable by requiring the fill be capped, bermed and "no water could ever leave the site." It was a landfill.

However, the County being the County issued building permits to a contractor who had pulled 305 building permits in the two years he was building this house.

The house and septic tanks were built at the bottom of the concrete pool created by the cap and the berm. When the lake was rising the forms starting floating the neighbors again contacted the County. County came out and told the contractor to toss some rocks under the foundation footings to get them out of the water.

The Health department testified to the Hearing Examiner that my site was not suitable for an on site septic system. Then without explanation they allowed one to be installed. It fills with the Lake and then pumps to the drainfield which in turn surfaces in my front yard. There are not sewers around and no sites available to send my sewage to. The house is then uninhabitable.

Insurance: No, they sent me a 38 page claim denial. Now faced with triple damages they are backtracking claiming they didn't didn't ALL my claim.

Contractor: Not the first owner so I have no "privity of contract" to sue him, only the firs owner could.

First Owner: Nope, didn't disclose anything on the form but has filled bankruptcy.

County: Yes, they allowed the property to be filled, allowed it to be built under water. Problem is the Building department is seperate from the Health department. According to the Assessor, the Building department blames the Health department and the Health department blames the Building department. Assessor concluded that from my successful appeal it will have 522 appeals and lawsuits from others on the lake. County is only insured to $5,000,000. Hopefully it won't satisfy its promise to file bankruptcy before I get my day.

Bank: Won't talk to me about any of it. They say I have too many assets. So I continue to get to pay.

Now Health is shutting off all utilities to the property and posting signs which is a red carpet welcome. Insurance just canceled me because the house is not occupied. Now the homeowners association is given me a bad time because people continue to cut off the locks on the gate to the boat launch and are using it. I have a contractor removing the dock to keep people from mooring their boats.

But its going an interesting fight. The lake has 2,423 houses that dump their untreated sewage into the lake daily. Now someone has the big idea to convert the lake into drinking water. I might loose a lot but I'm going out of the county swinging.

[JeffreyCH]

Sounds like you have won the battle but not the war, big props on sticking to your guns. If you lived closer I'd buy you a beer. Keep fighting the good fight man, stuff like this has to be brought to light in order for REAL change to happen. Again CHEERS, shots and beers.

[goofyboy]

LCap - good job man. This has been going on for a couple of years already, correct? Keep it up. good luck in the continuing fight.

[ky1e]

So your name's Dan, huh? learn something new everyday

anyhow, congrats man!!

[E.J.]

NICE! Good on you Lcap....

I hope to hear continued decisions in your favor with as your proceed.

[jjaszkow]

lcap, glad to hear that something finally went your way with this battle. Pretty tough situation, and I hope it continues to work out in your favor.

[lcap]

Thanks everyone! I lost what I thought was a naive concept of being able to make a difference a very long time ago. The desire to make a difference I believed was a folly of youth.

This experience has taught me I was a fool. Each of us can make a difference, it just takes time and perseverance.

There are 2,423 houses on this lake that were never supposed to be built without sewers because the geology; hardpan 24" below the surface would have the sewage from septic systems surface and or flow into the lake almost immediately. It was so bad the FHA petitioned the EPA to issue a letter so the FHA wouldn't have to loan money on houses built on or near the lake. Running sewers to this lake was the 5th highest priority in the State of Washington for almost a decade in the late 1970's into the 1980's. The sewers were never built because of fighting between the County and the City for control. Now, according to the City, "there are no short term solutions." At best sewers would take 20 years which creates a "meantime problem." Once you tell the homeowners you have to run sewers and they have to pay, according to the Cities estimate, $70,000 to $85,000 per lot the cat is all the way out of the bag and they have to wait 20 years, meantime, to clean up the cesspool.

There are 524 houses on one of the lake's islands that gets its drinking water directly from this cesspool. It's well has failed every test for safe drinking water, EPA and DOE tests, for over two decades. The people have been unknowingly been drinking water contaminated with Endocrine Disruptor's and Pharmaceuticals while those in the know, the government, has turned a blind eye and let the Assessor's described "train of litigants" to become even larger.

The Assessor estimates the train could be as large as $220,000,000,000. I have the attention of a lot of people. What I may lose I'll chalk up to knowing I helped prevent many innocent children from all the problems associated with drinking contaminated water. I have spent over $3,000 at $0.15/page for copies that document the decades of this open secret. From local small city to the State of Washington to the EPA, Department of Justice, FHA and other federal entities.

One of the State's Senator's asked if "I had the documents." I have ten bankers boxes of documents that tells the story well. She advised me she will no longer talk to me. Considering she pushed to have legislation passed that made it so the lake didn't have to be tested for Water Quality before water rights were granted to turn the cesspool into drinking water, she may soon regret that decision.

One of the Assessors had to recuse himself from the Hearing because one of our local politicians, headed the "Save the Lake Project, had put enormous pressure on the Assessor's office not to file the report on my property as written. He threatened jobs if the Assessor testified.

Its getting interesting for the City, County and State of Washington. If I do well enough I may recover some ($1.95) of my lost money with a book but none of that matters if I can prevent more harm to the innocents.


If anyone has any ideas on how to create a website inexpensively, I'm broke, that would be fantastic! I'd like to have simple buttons that people could press and look at some of the documents, links and photographs that I have.

Thank you all again!

[_bruky]

www.synthasite.com

Easy to use, five minute registration, free site and hosting

[gswake]

Congrats on the victory, lcap! And good on you for making a difference for all the others around that lake. Here's hoping your recovery comes soon.

I'd like to see some of your docs, if you set up the website. (Wouldn't you have to pay for the traffic, though? I know nothing about creating or hosting websites, though.)

[Tbonez]

So there is doo doo floating around in this lake and people are boating in it, swimming in it and drinking in it? Has the word not gotten out yet what is going on..I can tell you this I wouldnt be ice breaking my boat through a glacier of doo doo with my family...One last question are all of these home owners screwed? Im assuming none of them will ever be able to sell....

[E.J.]

[JeffreyCH]

[Hollywood]

[ontrider]

lcap, this is brutal.... glad to see you got your assessment all fixed up though. I hope you were not on the hook for last years assessed value?

Check your PM and shoot me an email.

[lcap]

Tbonez,

Yes it is full of doo. Last time the Water Quality was tested was in 1977 and the fecal colliform (poo count) count was 18,200 counts/L the State of Washington and EPA limits for human contact is 60 counts/L. That was when only 30% of the lake was developed. Now it is almost 100%. In addition the lake has a Waste Water Treatment Plant that was built in 1941 for a State Owned mental institution. Its discharge of poo is within a 1/4 mile of the intake to fill the lake.

The victory on the Tax Assessment allows me to be an advocate vs. just another crazy citizen. People understand geology doesn't change from one house in a neighborhood to the next. The failed septic, because of the hardpan, is what forced me to move. They know I'm not alone. As a result me and my family have been harassed, threatened and the house vandalized: cut up my boat lift canopy, tore up fencing, destroyed the septic alarms, broke windows etc. Most learn of the lake contamination and move off the lake within 2 years. Selling the problem to someone else.

Hollywood,

Laugh or Cry. Its amazing how many jokes, cliches, sayings in the English language involve poo.

ontrider,

Thanks! I sent you about 10 megs of documents.

[Tbonez]

[lcap]

Tbonez,

No other homeowners are harassing me. They don't want this to get out because most have had contractors install bypasses on the drainfields to eliminate the sewage in their yards. So a contractor runs a pipe straight from the septic tanks into the lake. According to the contractors I've talked to that have done this the County knew they were doing it and chose to do nothing because the County thought it was better to put the sewage into the lake than to condemn a house which would lead to condemning another and another. At the time this was going on parts of the lake were flushed once every 13 days when the lake was used to produce hydro power. The power plant has been shut down so now none of the lake is flushed.

In 2004 the hydro power operations stopped so the lake isn't flushed. The USGS tested the water for dissolved oxygen in 2005 and found it was less than 1%. The States minimum is 9% for the survival of fish. The lake is dead. The nutrients cause algae blooms, when the algae dies, it consumes the oxygen which kills the few fish that are left.

The State and County consider the problem "unmanageable." In 2003 legislation was passed to allow water rights to be granted without testing the suitability of the water. The lake hasn't been tested, at least reported, since the 1970's. The State Pollution Control Board stated "it is undisputed Lake T is contaminated."

If the State or County reports the tests and shuts down the lake for public swimming the problems that would create are enormous. The lake was going to be drained forever until it was sold to supply drinking water. The State estimated it would cost $1,000,000,000 to drain the lake without the lawsuits. You start posting signs then people start asking questions. They ask questions they find what I found. When that happens the sale of the lake for $36,000,000 goes away and the cost of supplying drinking water for $1,000,000,000 goes away because the people in King County are already upset about spending a $1,000,000,000 for water that people play in. They'll really be upset knowing the lake is filled with poop from the WWTP and then augmented with 2,423 houses dumping 726,900 gallons of poop a day.

[Hollywood]

You have really found something there, and are at least doing something about it. I'm curious to watch this whole thing unfold, if it does.

[nmballa]

[lcap]

nmballa,

We are concerned if we get the media involved the County will file bankruptcy. The County is self insured to $5,000,000 and has $9,000,000 in the self insurance account. They lost a $27,000,000 mold lawsuit earlier this year and threatened to file bankruptcy because of it.

The problem is so large: 2,423 houses @ $750k each with such small pockets $5m for the County and $50m for the State a class action wouldn't be as beneficial for the lawyers as several dozen individual lawsuits to get the money. This doesn't include the lawsuits from those that have drunk the contaminated water for 30 years, the Indians Native fishing grounds that have been contaminated for 50 years, the costs for the loss of the sale ($36,000,000) for drinking water or the costs incurred by the Water Alliance to get the water rights.

[nmballa]

So if the county goes files for bankruptcy wouldn't it's assets go into receivership? You need a new dump truck or how about your own park, maybe own a highway. Set up your own toll booth.

[J-Ro]

Insured for 5m? I know individuals that have umbrella policies for more than that. Who is policing this pathetic counties actions? Why isn't the state involved? Or the Feds? You should ask Obama to help. Or maybe ACORN.

[ontrider]

Screw Obama... you need to talk to Michael Moore

[pet575]

If you are concerned about the County filing for bankruptcy, you should probably resign yourself right now to the fact that you are never going to get a single penny. Assuming this to be true, what do you really have to lose here? Nothing from nothing is nothing....

What do you have to gain?
Accountability for those making this chain of horrible decisions.
Putting a stop to the perpetual corruption in the sale/purchase of homes in that area
Protection of the general population from a serious health risk
Prevention of the sale of this lake for drinking water so that those who have already profited from these practices will not continue to reap huge benefits from their dirty dealings.
I could go on and on.

As a lawyer, I can't believe I'm about to say this: Forget the money. There are several other good reasons to proceed that far outweigh the potential monetary recovery you would receive (which I still don't believe will ever come your way, BTW).

[Hollywood]

Sounds like he said he's doing that.

[pet575]

I had that impression after that post as well, but then all the talk of the reasons he's not going to the media with it made me start to question that. Don't really seem like consistent lines of thinking, unless he really fears the retaliation that may come his way. Would be understandable.

[Hollywood]

[kartman]

which lake is this? if you dont mind me asking.

[pet575]