Green Caucus takes message to Olympia

Excerpted from WFSE/AFSCME Council 28's HOTLINE by Tim Welch:

GREEN CAUCUS MAKES IMPACT IN LEGISLATIVE HEARINGS

    Wednesday was the lobby day in Olympia for the Federation’s Green Caucus and their members made a splash on two environmental bills up for hearings that day.

    SB 6406 would, among other things, charge for hydraulic project approvals – permits for projects affecting water. But it would also change key parts of this state’s environmental keystone, the State Environmental Policy 
Act (SEPA).

    That’s a concern, two of the Federation’s Green Caucus members told the Senate Energy, Natural Resources and Marine Waters Committee.

    “I support the concept of more revenue for important programs,” said Kerry Graber, a Local 443 members with the Department of Ecology in Lacey.

    But, she added, “We do have concerns about the changes to SEPA and the changes to citizen access. I think it’s a union value and a public service value that a citizen should have as much access to information.”

    Bellingham Local 1060 DSHS Green Caucus member Michele Stelovich echoed Graber’s concerns.

    “Our ability to participate in our growth management and how our waters are cleaned up is essential to our communities,” Stelovich told the senators.

    In the second Green Caucus committee appearance of the day, Graber and another Local 443 Ecology member, Dolores Mitchell, urged caution on SB 6211 to speed up cleanup of hazardous waste sites.

    The bill came before the Senate Environment Committee.

    “As a citizen, I ask that you not change the Model Toxics Control Act without a citizen referendum, particularly changes to the liability issues,” Mitchell testified. “Liability release leaves the public without protections against inadequate cleanups and no recourse in the event of human and environmental health harms that result. Particularly, it lets the polluters off the hook.”

    “We have exemplary public servants who work really hard to speed these cleanups along as quickly as possible…,” Graber said.

    “We feel that placing that important decision of when something is cleaned up into the hands of a consultant whose motives may be profit or solely the client’s interest instead of the public interest is a real shift in policy.”