Thursday, April 15, 2010

Not enougth muscle to pass Clean Water bill

The votes were very close, but our leadership in Olympia didn't flex the muscle necessary to pass the Clean Water bill which would have collected funds from the oil industry to help clean up stormwater pollution and prevent it from draining into Washington's rivers and ocean. This is an enormous missed opportunity. Despite the fact that stormwater pollution mostly comes from oil, property owners are still expected to pay for its management without much help from industry. And as a result, struggling local governments are not likely to make much headway against the number one threat to Puget Sound.

This is a loss for Surfrider Foundation and for clean water. But don't think for a second that your actions this session -- your letters, emails, phone calls, tabling, and other outreach -- were not invaluable. They were. And our continued push to educate the masses about the impacts of stormwater pollution remains critical. The take away from this session is that we need to be louder and we need to be more clear about how important clean water is -- for us, for our communities, and for Washington.

If you haven't already, take a moment to watch The Cycle of Insanity, The Real Story of Water and then send the link to your friends: http://knowyourh2o.org

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