Thank you for your support of the Orca Appeal which asks Seattle to follow the recommendations in NOAA's Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Plan and not increase polluted runoff. It doesn't make sense to increase water pollution when critically endangered orcas do not have enough to eat. Pollution harms their prey as well.

On November 10th, the City submitted their response to our Court of Appeals opening brief.
We are preparing our reply and bringing on additional attorneys. 

The Port of Seattle just won a lawsuit against the city for doing an inadequate Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) demonstrating this is not the only instance they've done an inadequate EIS. 

On Halloween the city held a public hearing for CB121093, a bill to eliminate State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) review for:

• mixed use and manufacturing buildings up to 65,000sf, 
• double sized parking lots up to 90 spaces from 40, 
• doubled number of dump trucks removing earth from sites from 50 to 100, 
• reducing the required housing from 50% floor area to (1) one unit. 

This effectively means the EIS we are appealing will be the main EIS for the next 20 years. The city's summary suggests they feel their existing regulations and agencies cover the environment successfully yet SDCI currently enforces only a fraction of tree ordinance violations and the Stormwater Code and Critical Areas Ordinance are being changed. SEPA allows public comment on the building of data centers.

We're excited and grateful to announce Orca Conservancy's fiscal sponsorship. To make a tax-deductible donation to our legal fund, select "Orca Nexus" from the drop-down menu on the Orca Conservancy donation page. This GoFundMe will still accept credit card donations. Please reach out to hello at orcaappeal dot org with any questions.

We really enjoyed talking with Circlewood on how this appeal came to be. Check out the podcast.

Last but not least, we have flyers for anyone who would like!

Thank you all for your support of the Orca Appeal.