InvestigateWest (https://www.invw.org/category/environment/)
Reporting on the past, present and future of the environment in the Northwest.
Ardagh Group, a multinational glass-recycling firm in south Seattle that has a checkered environmental past, is looking to renew its lease on 17 acres along the Duwamish River. The King County Council faces a tough decision as it weighs the company’s environmental history against its role as a major employer in the region, as well as King County’s only glass waste recycler.
A bill in the Washington Legislature (HB1579) would give state Fish and Wildlife agents far more power to fight armoring of Puget Sound seashore by seawalls and other environmental insults along the shoreline.
Puget Sound’s beloved orcas are at risk of extinction and scientists say one key step to rescuing them is boosting oceangoing runs of chinook salmon, the biggest, fattest and most nutritious kind of salmon and the killer whales’ main food source. But legislators seeking to open up more than 1,000 miles of prime inland spawning areas that are currently blocked to the fish by culverts are struggling to find a funding source. What is blocking all those fish? Culverts. These are the pipes and tunnels that pass under roads throughout the state, allowing water to flow downstream. It turns out that many old highway projects in the state were poorly engineered where they intersect with salmon-bearing streams and as a result can block the fish in a variety of ways.
The Washington Legislature is considering whether to require use of more climate-friendly motor vehicle fuels. Although Washington collects and processes biodiesel – an alternative fuel made partially of vegetable oil or animal fats that has a distinctly lower carbon impact than traditional diesel – most of this renewable resource is shipped out of state because Oregon, California, and British Columbia have all passed legislation requiring progressive reductions in the amount of fossil fuel allowed in gasoline and diesel.
A sweeping array of Washington legislative proposals to counter climate change have their best chance to pass into law in 2019 than at any time in recent years. But it won’t be easy for majority Democrats and Gov. Jay Inslee to get all they want in the 105-day session that began last week. InvestigateWest outlines current issues on the docket, including measures to help critically endangered orcas and salmon and green-oriented revisions for housing codes.
Mixed environmental results marked the whirlwind 60-day session of the 2018 Washington Legislature, which brought a few environmental firsts but also some significant losses on climate change that go beyond their inability to pass a carbon tax.
A deadline for truckers who serve the ports of Seattle and Tacoma to reduce air pollution by switching to cleaner trucks is delayed nine months as the drivers stage a walkout to lobby port commissioners. The ports are also putting up $1 million to guarantee loans for drivers who want to upgrade. But the drivers say they need a lot more financial help to make the switch.
Environmentalists and industry representatives are battling in Olympia over whether to ban chemicals used widely in fast-food wrappers and found in some communities’ drinking water that may cause various health complications. If the bills are passed, Washington will be the first state to regulate “perfluorinated chemicals”.
Short-haul truck drivers who pick up and deliver containers at the ports of Seattle and Tacoma are organizing a walkout Tuesday to protest a proposed April 1 deadline restricting port access to allow only newer, cleaner-burning diesel trucks. Independent drivers who own their trucks and contract for work one load at a time say the cost of upgrading to cleaner vehicles will put many of them out of business. The drivers are mostly immigrants from East Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, according to the Northwest Seaport Alliance, an agency formed in 2015 to merge the ports of Seattle and Tacoma. A flyer distributed late last week calls on independent drivers to attend a meeting of commissioners from both ports Tuesday. At the meeting, Seaport Alliance commissioners are set to decide whether to adopt the new April 1 deadline for their self-imposed, decade-old commitment to cleaner-burning trucks.
Even with Democrats in charge of both houses of the Washington Legislature and the governor’s mansion, the 2018 legislative session is far from a sure-fire win for environmentalists. Climate, water use, oil spill prevention and more are being discussed. Can anything significant pass?
Long-stalled efforts to better protect Seattle’s tree canopy got a boost from a recent executive order by the mayor, and a key city council member says he will try to pass a stronger tree protection ordinance by next spring.
