Jim Peters, Squaxin Island Tribe, in the Olympian: Fish consumption rate is a...
Read the entire piece, but here’s a good start: Do you like to eat local fish and shellfish? If so, you should know that right now Gov. Jay Inslee is deciding how much pollution can be dumped in our...
View ArticleBill Sterud on the fish consumption rate
Bill Sterud, vice-chairman of the Puyallup Tribal Council, writes in the Tacoma Weekly that the debate on water quality in Washington should be about protecting people: To us, the answers are simple....
View ArticleSeattle Times covers the fish consumption rate
Lynda Mapes gave a good report on the fish consumption rate debate in the Seattle Times, emphasizing the flexibility available in the process: The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued...
View ArticleEverett Herald: Fretting over the nonexistent
The Everett Herald had a great editorial recently on concerns about better water quality standards: Beckett-like absurdity was on display at Monday’s press conference with leaders of the International...
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Governor to announce decision on water quality standards today
You can watch the governor’s announcement here at noon. This decision comes after decades of advocacy by the tribes to increase the state’s fish consumption rate (an important part of the formula to...
View ArticleTribes Cautious About Governor’s Toxics Reduction Plan (and other coverage)
The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission released a statement yesterday about the governor’s water quality proposal: Tribes Cautious About Governor’s Toxics Reduction Plan Treaty Indian tribes in...
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Put some bounce in the fish consumption rate
Everyone knows what happens when you under-inflate a basketball. It just doesn’t bounce. But this is what editorial writers seem to want to do with the fish consumption rate. Instead of using a fish...
View ArticleTribes call on EPA to update water quality standards
Jerry Cornfield at the Everett Herald wrote about a meeting the treaty tribes in western Washington are having with EPA today: “The tribes’ principal objective for revised water quality standards is to...
View ArticleNew report on corporate opposition to improving water quality standards
Borderlands Research and Education is out with a new report that “documents how big business and conservative and far right groups are opposing increased FCRs, threatening tribal treaty rights,...
View ArticleEcology releases preliminary draft rules for standards that increase cancer...
The Associated Press covered the release of a preliminary draft rule on new water quality standards: The state Department of Ecology on Tuesday released a draft rule that updates contentious water...
View ArticlePuget Sound seabirds end up eating polluted fish
The Columbia Basin Bulletin points out an interesting study that shows just how pollution makes it through the food chain: Seabirds nesting in Puget Sound consume fish, including Columbia River salmon,...
View ArticleEPA to step in for human health in Washington water quality standards
Four months ago treaty tribes asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency to step in and set water quality standards in Washington state that would protect human health. Late last night the EPA...
View ArticleMaine told to update water quality standards
A couple of months back the federal government sent Washington State a message that if they didn’t get the update to their water quality standards done soon and right, the EPA was going to step in. A...
View ArticleSpeak up against increasing our cancer risk rate!
The state Department of Ecology is holding a series of public hearing on changes to our water quality standards, including a 10 fold increase in the cancer risk rate. Increasing the cancer risk rate is...
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Water quality standards are about way more than the end of the pipe
There is a difference between pollution that comes from a factory or a wastewater treatment plant and pollution from streets or a farm: Here is a good explanation between the two from the EPA. This is...
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An easy way to understand water quality and the cancer risk rate
The Puget Soundkeepers put together a great graphic to help you understand how the cancer risk rate is a vital component of ensuring our health here in Washington. You can take a look at the graphic...
View ArticleEPA: increasing cancer risk by 10-fold does not “fully reflect best available...
Last week’s end of the public comment period on the state’s proposed water quality rules included substantial comments from all levels of our community. This includes the federal Environmental...
View ArticleThe long, sad journey of HB 1472 shows why we need a better water quality rule
As it was passed out of a senate committee last week, HB 1472 — the governor’s much lauded plan to control toxics — suffered a fatal blow. The committee tacked on a provision to the bill that...
View ArticleDarn Right: “there should be no allowance for more cancer in our communities”
Great oped this morning by Laura Skelton of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility and Steve Gilbert of the Institute of Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders: Gov. Jay Inslee and the...
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PCC Natural Markets: A tenfold increase in cancer risk is not acceptable
PCC Natural Markets, the iconic Seattle-based food market, called out the state Department of Ecology in their comments on new proposed water quality standards: A tenfold increase in cancer risk (and...
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