The 2011 Clean Water Jobs Act — one of the Environmental Priorities Coalition‘s four bills — would address toxic runoff from roads and urban areas that ends up in Puget Sound, as well as lakes and rivers, when it rains. Under the proposed legislation, oil companies would pay a per-barrel fee on petroleum products, one of the biggest sources of water pollution. In addition, the bill would fund local projects to clean up petroleum pollution. For more on this proposed bill, contact Brendon Cechovic at Washington Conservation Voters: brendon@wcvoters.org.
Another bill addresses requirements under the state’s oil spill program. This legislation would improve funding for the Department of Ecology’s Oil-Spill Program (which currently has a multi-million dollar deficit); strengthen requirements for stockpiling spill-response equipment for use in rough seas, fast currents, darkness and fog, and other challenging environments; expand the oil spill response drill program to better train responders; and train and equip commercial fishermen in spill response to increase response capacity. Download a fact sheet at http://pugetsound.org/pps-home-page/programs/policy/action-alerts/011011oil.
