By Steve Shay

Many of our readers have met signature collectors representing Seattle Citizens Against the Tunnel (SCAT) or have seen their kiosks, and some have signed their I-101 initiative to stop the progress of the deep bore tunnel. According to SCAT, they will shortly surpass the signature number required to place their initiative on the ballot. While SCAT chair Elizabeth Campbell has told the Ballard News-Tribune that the verification of 20,000 signatures will make this initiative a done deal, she also pointed out that the predominantly pro tunnel City Council, WSDOT, and the State of Seattle may attempt to use ploys to derail this initiative.

Here are portions of the latest SCAT press release:

Dear Friends of Seattle Citizens Against the Tunnel,

In the next two days the signature count for I-101 stop the tunnel will cross over the 20,692 mark, the base amount of signatures required to put this initiative on the ballot. Our target has always been to gather 25,000 signatures, and with five weeks remaining prior to the February 1, 2011, the cutoff date for gathering signatures, the final weeks will be spent handily completing our goal of 25,000 signatures.

In the past couple of weeks we have added two more top producer circulators, greatly increasing our signature gathering output. This week’s turn-in (12/20) was our all time high in terms of signatures turned in, we netted over 2,600 signatures!

The next step is to assemble our campaign team for when this goes on the ballot – and we’re starting now!

We can never start too early, we are clearly the underdog, I anticipate literally probably 100’s of thousands of dollars (probably more than that) being thrown against this initiative, and wouldn’t be surprised if some sort of legal maneuvering doesn’t go on by the pro-tunnel forces. We can also be sure that their messaging machine will go into overdrive, making all manner of claims, many which will be either partially or more likely wholly untrue.

In March (...) King County Superior Court Judge Eadie gave approbation to WSDOT and their lawyers’ claims despite dozens of WSDOT documents that had been obtained through public disclosure requests being submitted into evidence that the deep bored tunnel project was proceeding without the EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) being completed. His comments were that the steps WSDOT and SDOT were taking on the project were some “coordinate planning” for the “possibility of construction of the deep bored tunnel”.

End of press release

The Ballard News-Tribune has read Judge Eadie's document and can confirm it contains the above response. So the question remains, Is the deep bore tunnel a done deal prior to the requisite Federal Environmental Impact Statement, not due until July, and will Initiative-101 stand in the way of what many consider a done deal tunnel plan?