Here’s the short version up front: public chargers are expanding fast in Bellingham and around the U.S., and reliability is slowly improving—enough that, for most households who can charge at home, owning an EV is easier than it was even a year ago. But public charging still shapes perceptions (especially for apartment dwellers and road-trippers), and states are actively rethinking how to fund roads as gas-tax revenue erodes (EV fees, “pay-per-mile” pilots). 

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:dea6d2d3-14bb-4c10-9140-ffeea9628c3a

My rebuttal to Elenbaas suggestion:

Rebuttal to Ben Elenbaas’s  Recommendation The Salish Current article highlights County Council member Ben Elenbaas’s push to amend the county comprehensive plan to favor a negotiated settlement over the full Nooksack water rights adjudication, suggesting this will save time and money and benefit agriculture and housing security. But this perspective overlooks key realities of western water law and practical alternatives that could better serve local communities, ecosystems, and tribes.  First, adjudication isn’t merely a bureaucratic obstacle. It is a legal process that quantifies, prioritizes, and permanently records all water rights in the basin, including tribal instream flows and senior rights that currently lack formal definition, which is critical for fair long-term management. Without this legal framework, negotiated agreements risk collapsing under legal challenge or failing to address conflicts between senior and junior rights.  Second, focusing only on negotiated settlements assumes stakeholders have equal leverage and information, but water supplies are declining due to climate change, and competing needs for agriculture, municipal use, and salmon habitat make informal deals fragile. A thoughtful adjudication can unlock funding and structured data that inform collaborative projects like water storage, efficiency upgrades, and habitat restoration, benefiting all parties if paired with good facilitation.  Rather than sidelining adjudication, policymakers should improve support for participants — including technical assistance, outreach, and sequencing settlement talks in parallel with legal determination. They should also invest in physical water solutions like aquifer recharge, expanded storage, and riparian habitat enhancement, and ensure tribal co-leadership in watershed governance, recognizing treaty and ecological priorities. These steps offer a more durable path to water security than accelerating a settlement that may lack legal standing and environmental safeguards. 

Sources • Council member proposes Nooksack adjudication settlement – Salish Current   • Ecology WRIA 1 (Nooksack) adjudication info – WA Ecology   • What the adjudication does – RE Sources explanation   • Unknowns and need for data for solutions – Salish Current commentary   

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:8a385481-2a18-4ee2-8d92-12c1d54f3590

More accurate map incorporating 1864 and 1920 data

Richard et al,with all do respect, whether you and/or others refer to an ever changing climate, climate change, weather patterns , seasonal variation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Pinrapple Express, etc. , identifying the causes of flooding involves water caused by precipitation ( rain, snow, sleet, hail) temperature changes, condensation, and gravity and the other action and condition causes for flooding identified in this article. 
 
Any event based problem has several causes, at least one action cause, and several condition causes which exist, line up at the same time and space for that problem to exist. 

see attached YouTube videos on Problem Solving

https://youtu.be/k7ItSa7B-5s?si=txRA9iVWqib_e0of

https://youtu.be/juL9pKsXf34?si=xXZjjv0gxaJ2TPc4

Respectfully

EJ Ledet