A new frontier: A sustainable plan for state’s stormwater | Letter

Published 1:00 pm Friday, April 12, 2013

This letter was drafted in a meeting of our coaches whereby we focused on how to best benefit our local community. We attended Environmental Lobby Day in Olympia on Feb. 19 and were moved by Gov. Inslee’s speech on the rotunda that afternoon.

We intend to educate the public on the needs of the commons and how to plan to meet these needs sustainably. This letter is another step along this path.

Protecting the Salish Sea, and all waters of this great state, has been to date a hodge-podge of legislative band-aids that need to be sunsetted in favor of a much more sustainable plan to protect our waters. Currently, stormwater is being processed through a number of sewage systems in an effort to share costs and work with the pollutants prior to their reaching the ocean. The problem is each storm overcomes each facility with stormwaters so to protect their equipment they release millions of gallons of over flow into downstream easements. They have petitioned local governments to get these easements and they have been legislated into the system.

This is a very poor system. We need Sen. Tom to lead the legislation into committing to make the cleanup of runoff pollution a top priority for the Washington legislature. We need to fund a bond issue that awards the most sustainable providers of stormwater remediation solutions. This needs to be done soonest and if possible within this session.

Mark Walker, Bellevue