Washington Chapter—Issues
 

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"As the bumper sticker says,
'I love my country but the
government makes me nervous.'

Watchful wariness about
government activities is a sign
of a healthy democracy.
Government agencies are not
always right, and we shouldn't
expect them to be.
That's why the Founding Fathers
designed an ingenious system
of checks and balances
that keep fallible public servants
 from losing sight of the big picture.

The National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA),
which took effect in 1969,
is one such check and balance.
The law requires the government
to let us—the citizens who
pay the bills—know about likely
impacts of proposed public
projects. The law also requires
government to listen to citizens
who have an interest and opinion."

—from an op-ed that then-Chapter
President Dr. Lunell Haught published in
the Spokane Spokesman-Review
Click here to read the complete essay.

  

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Hanford

Background: Hanford, where plutonium was produced for America's nuclear arsenal, is the most polluted place in the Western Hemisphere. The radioactive and chemical byproducts of plutoniuim production created a huge legacy of wastes, including nearly 500 billion gallons of wastes dumped into unlined soil trenches; and 177 storage tanks holding 53 million gallons of mixed radioactive and chemical wastes, at least one-third of which have leaked.

In 1989, Washington State, the U.S. Department of Energy, and Environmental Protection Agency signed the Tri-Party Agreement, a binding agreement that calls for cleanup of wastes by negotiated milestones. But poor federal management has pushed cleanup of the tanks back repeatedly and driven up the costs. Estimated cost of the vitrification plant to dispose of the wastes has soared past $11 billion.

Solution: In 2004, Washington voters approved Initiative 297 by a 70 percent majority. I-297 specifies that no new waste can be introduced to Hanford until existing waste is cleaned up. The initiative has been challenged by the federal government in court. The solution is for the Washington Legislature to enact I-297 into law in a way that is consistent with existing law on state jurisdiction over mixed wastes.

Roadless Lands and Wilderness

Background: The national forest system comprises 191 million acres across the U.S. Of that amount, one-third are unprotected "inventoried roadless areas" that are largely pristine. Washington has more than 2 million acres of such roadless areas. They include the Quilcene on the Olympic Peninsula, the Dark Divide in southwestern Washington, and the Meadows in north central Washington. These lands provide abundant wildlife habitat, clean water, and refreshing scenery. Unless they are protected, these lands could be opened to road-building, expanded off-road vehicle intrusions, and other disturbances.

Keeping roadless areas protected is fiscally responsible. The Forest Service can't afford to take care of its existing, 380,000-mile network of roads, and there is an $8.4 billion road maintenance backlog, including $278 million in Washington. The Forest Service should maintain the roads it has, to save the taxpayers money and prevent erosion that damages streams and fisheries.

Solution: The ultimate solution is to designate all qualifying roadless lands as wilderness, which requires an act of Congress.

For Further Reading: The Hidden Forest: The Biography of an Ecosystem, by Jon Luoma

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