“Our Puget Sound and coast face an era of unprecedented activity,” State Senator Kevin Ranker, D-San Juan Island, said last week. “Important existing uses and new proposals are competing for what once seemed like limitless space. In order to maximize the benefits our Sound and ocean provide — both ecologically and economically — we urgently need a process to rationally guide the multiple management objectives. This bill gets us there.”
Ranker’s Senate Bill 6350,,which passed in the State Senate last week 44-2, will allow all entities which depend upon Washington’s marine resources — such as fishing, aquaculture, shipping, recreation and proposed wave, tidal and other energy facilities — to make informed and coordinated decisions on the use of marine resources.
Another Ranker bill, SB 6557, limits the use of copper in brake pads. SB 6557 would limit the amount of dissolved copper that enters Puget Sound. Close to seven million metric tons of dissolved copper enter the Sound every year — half of which originates from brake pads — and is harmful to salmon and other marine resources on which we depend. This bill requires brake pads be made of substances less detrimental to the environment. SB 6557 passed 39-8.
“We’ve found that the copper powder that comes off brake pads is a significant contributor to polluting the marine environment,” Ranker said. “We are fixing the pollution problem by working with the auto industry to keep motorists safe while protecting our waterways from copper.”
A third bill, SB 6373, aligns the state with the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas reporting rule. SB 6373 passed 45-1 and directs the Department of Ecology to adopt rules requiring people to report emissions of greenhouse gases where those emissions from a single facility, source, or site, or from fossil fuels sold in Washington by single supplier meet or exceed 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.
“This makes our state reporting standards consistent with our federal standards so that it is easier for the folks that have to report to do so,” Ranker said.
