Michael Lilliquist: City Council, Bellingham

Michael Lilliquist (http://www.lilliquistforcitycouncil.org/) is challenging a long time incumbent, and is bringing fresh energy and ideas to Bellingham's environmental problems. In particular, he recognizes that the water quality problems in our drinking water source, Lake Whatcom, result from the current building and land use practices. He's advocating for changes to existing development and stormwater management practices. He's proposed retrofits to detain and infiltrate stormwater runoff on existing developed properties, not just improvements to new construction practices (the typical approach being advocated by city and county government). Funding would come from incentivized impact fees assessed on future development projects. He also plans to implement legislation to tighten up new construction stormwater treatment practices. We support these bold new leadership ideas and hope to see that he gets the opportunity to implement them.