Environment & Water

AWC Priority
Clean Up and Protection of the Puget Sound (2ESSB 5372)

This bill is poised to come up for consideration on the House floor and AWC will support its passage. Bill sponsors Sen. Phil Rockefeller (D-Bainbridge Island) and Rep. Dave Upthegrove (D-DesMoines), along with numerous other legislators and administration officials, have been very open to input from cities, counties and ports on this important bill. We appreciate their attention to our suggestions and look forward to enactment of the bill and the important work of cleaning up the Puget Sound.

For more information, please contact Dave Williams, davew@awcnet.org.

AWC Priority – We Need Your Help!
Residential Yard Waste Burning in Small Cities (SSB 6081)

Cities interested in this bill are encouraged to contact your House members to seek their support for moving SSB 6081 to the House Rules Committee. A fact sheet, including a list of cities that benefit from this bill, can be found online at www.awcnet.org/documents/BurnBanSmallCitiesFactSheet032607.pdf.

This priority bill was heard before and passed from the House Select Committee on Environmental Health on Thursday, March 29 at 1:30 pm. In somewhat of a surprise development to interests supporting the bill, it was referred to the House Appropriations Committee because of an $83,000 fiscal impact estimate on the Department of Ecology (Ecology). The fiscal impact reflects their estimated costs of conferring with stakeholders over the summer and early fall.

The bill was not scheduled for hearing or consideration before the Appropriations Committee as of Monday, April 2 and as such, is now technically a "dead" bill for this session. Ecology was also caught off guard with their fiscal note being used to refer the bill to Appropriations rather than to the Rules Committee, where it could be held while interests continued working through issues surrounding the bill.

To their credit, Ecology has reduced their fiscal note to a level that does not require consideration by the Appropriations Committee and they have supported AWC’s and the Washington State Association of County’s request to House Democratic Leadership that this bill be re-referred to the Rules Committee, thus keeping it "alive" for further consideration.

Efforts to date to have the bill re-referred to the House Rules Committee have not been successful; we are still trying and looking at other ways to keep this bill moving forward.

The bills’s sponsor, Sen. Linda Evans Parlette (R-Wenatchee), is actively engaged in our efforts and we greatly appreciate her interest and attention.

Cities interested in this bill are encouraged to contact your House members to seek their support for moving it to the House Rules Committee.

For more information, please contact Tim Gugerty, timg@awcnet.org.

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