ORCAA spent $345,000 last year on outdoor burning and recovered $27,400 in fines. Clallam County Commissioner Mike French voted to expand the agency’s tracking system anyway. Rural board members from Grays Harbor and Mason Counties called it a first step toward more rules and fees. Property owners who clear land now pay more than double. A local shipyard that wanted to add jobs paid a six-figure penalty and waited years for approval. Voters should ask who that record serves.
ORCAA (Olympic Region Clean Air Agency) is the regional air agency for six counties, including Clallam. It enforces rules on outdoor burning, land-clearing fires, industrial air permits, asbestos, and wood-stove smoke. It also runs state-funded programs that pay homeowners to remove uncertified wood stoves and replace them with heat pumps, gas, pellet, or electric units — or remove the stove altogether. The agency is dedicated to creating more process around burning and building, and it’s one of more than 20 boards, liasonships, and committees that Clallam County Commissioner Mike French sits on.
On November 12, 2025, that board voted 5-2 to direct staff to implement a “regionwide voluntary educational outdoor burning notification system” in time for the fall 2026 burn season. French voted yes. Grays Harbor County’s Georgia Miller and Mason County’s Randy Neatherlin voted no.
Staff framed the system as education, not a new permit. Thurston County already requires it. The motion was not a formal rule change. Board members who opposed it said the writing was on the wall: once the list of burners exists, the next board can make it mandatory and attach a fee.
That is not a conspiracy theory. It is what the meeting itself recorded.
The $345,000 program taxpayers already fund
Outdoor burning is ORCAA’s largest enforcement workload. Staff said 73 percent of all complaints are outdoor burns. Thurston County alone generated 459 of 668 complaints.
The agency spent about $345,000 on the program in the last fiscal year — money it described as unfunded.
Fine revenue collected was $27,400. Average cost per complaint, including enforcement, ran a little over $500.
Those dollars do not come from a dedicated burn tax. They come from the core grant (already under pressure) and from assessments every resident in the six-county region pays, including people who live in cities where residential burning is already illegal.
French compared the problem to county code enforcement: expensive, politically unpopular, and never enough. His solution was to give staff a database of who plans to burn so inspectors in Olympia can call instead of driving to Forks or Elma. That is an agency efficiency argument. It is not a taxpayer-relief argument.
Miller pointed out the outreach itself costs money the agency does not have. She also noted the idea had already been discussed at the finance committee as a possible future revenue source. French liked “reframing” the program as a notification rather than a permit. He also liked that Thurston’s system allows 10-foot piles instead of the four-foot default in state rules. Most rural landowners do not burn four-foot piles.
Neatherlin was blunt: he would support building a tool counties could choose to use. He would not support ORCAA implementing it over county authority, because “if this is implemented, it will become an enforcement action on the counties down the road.” The chair pushed for a vote that night. The motion carried.
Fees that already went up
Separate from the notification debate, ORCAA raised the land-clearing burn permit fee from $131 to $275 per acre in the FY2026 budget — more than a 100 percent increase — to move the program toward “full cost recovery.” Staff said it costs about $275 per permit to run. Most permits are for one acre. The agency issues roughly 225 a year.
That fee hits people clearing land for houses, businesses, or pasture. Staff said the increase is not “overly burdensome” relative to development costs. People who actually pay it may disagree.
The same budget draws $446,518 from unreserved fund balance, leaves a financial specialist position vacant, and flags outdoor burning and parts of new-source review as unfunded or underfunded.
Federal core grant revenue was reduced 20 percent in the projection because of uncertainty in Washington, D.C. Assessments and fees already make up 59 percent of revenue. When grants shrink, the pressure moves to fees and assessments.
French sits on that board. He also campaigns on economic development and housing affordability.
The Platypus file
Platypus Marine wanted to put a new building on Marine Drive to work on boats — including spray finishing and crew-transport vessels. Company president Chris Feffer told the Port Angeles Business Association the first phase would take about 35 full-time workers, with more if the building grew.
ORCAA’s own notices tell the air-permit story. Platypus filed Notice of Construction 23NOC1612 on Aug. 31, 2023, for expansion and an “after-the-fact” review of a three-sided booth. In the July 10, 2024 board packet, that file was still marked “draft in progress.” A later order, 25NOC1730, covering stack changes at 535 Marine Drive, was approved Jan. 26, 2026.
Rule 6.1 requires that you get that approval before you build or modify. ORCAA putting “after-the-fact” on the first notice means the booth was not lined up as a clean, before-construction permit.
Separately, Platypus and the City of Port Angeles fought in court over whether Building 535 counted as part of a “marina” and whether spray work could go forward. In August 2025, Judge Brent Basden sent the land-use question back to the city.
French is a former Port Angeles councilmember, an ORCAA board member, and a candidate who runs on jobs. The ORCAA file and the city lawsuit are public. Neither shows French using that seat to get a Port Angeles employer through the agency he helps govern.
That is the pattern, not a one-off: more process for the agency, more cost and delay for people who build, and a commissioner who sided with the majority while the rural counties on the board said no. French’s jobs pitch is a federal Recompete grant he chairs — money that buys things like a hydroseeder and excavator for the Jamestown Corporation — not a record of cutting tape so an existing Port Angeles boatyard can hire. Grant equipment is easier to announce than getting a local employer through ORCAA and City Hall.
Who he represents
French is running for a second term. His campaign emphasizes Recompete grants, housing, and infrastructure. Those are real projects. They do not cancel the ORCAA record.
The November vote did not ban burning. It did not instantly impose a new fee on backyard piles. It did create a region-wide list of burners, staff access to their emails, and a template already used in Thurston County. Opponents on the board said they did not trust the next step. The budget already shows the agency seeking cost recovery for land-clearing burns and warning that outdoor burning is an unfunded drain.
Clallam residents pay assessments into that system. They pay higher land-clearing fees. They wait on permits while the agency talks about “substantial benefits to the agency.” French voted to keep moving in that direction.
That is a fair question for November: does District 3 want another four years of a commissioner who treats ORCAA as an agency to be accommodated, or as a body that should be forced to justify every new list, fee, and delay to the people who actually live here?
Stay Engaged This Week
Tuesday, 7:30 a.m. — PABA breakfast
Port Angeles Business Association, Jazzy Joshua’s (113 Del Guzzi Drive, east Port Angeles). PUD District 2 candidates Rick Paschall and Randy Brackett speak.
Breakfast meeting runs until 8:30. Livestream is on PABA’s Facebook page. Joshua’s charges $5 if you don’t order food. This is open to the public, but PABA members get to ask questions first.
Tuesday, 10:00 a.m. — County commissioners
Regular weekly meeting, including the monthly Commissioners’ Forum — the only two-way session where residents can question the board and get answers on the record.
Thursday, 5:30 p.m. — I’ll be speaking in Happy Valley
Clallam County Watchdog’s Jeff Tozzer is the guest speaker at this month’s Republican Women of Clallam County meeting. Anyone is welcome — including non-Republicans (like me) and non-women (like me). If transparency in local government is important to you, come. I look forward to answering your questions.
Potluck at 5:30. I speak at 6:00, followed by the swimsuit and talent portions of my presentation. It’s in Happy Valley, a few minutes south of downtown Sequim. For the address and to RSVP, email Tanya Unruh at tanyanewdesign@gmail.com.
