The storm-water runoff bill
By rabolofia | March 14th, 2009 | Category: Blog |It’s the leading culprit in water pollution. Storm runoff has been a recent concern for the Puget Sound region, and when questioning who should be held responsible for the problem, local lawmaker and several environmentalists believe oil companies should.
According to KOMO News, HB1614 is a bill that would actually tax oil companies in an effort to compensate for environmental damage.
Oil companies would be charged a fee of $1.50 per barrel of petroleum product to pay for projects that would help change the flow of pollutants into the Puget Sound and nearby waters.
They blame the rain, though, as it falls onto the city of Seattle, moving oils and other pollutants from a variety of places. Quite obviously, these oil companies aren’t happy about the bill, as it would cost them for an environmental problem not directly linked (or at least intentionally) with the function of their product.
According to the Washington State Legislature website, the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources passed the bill last month. On March 2, the bill was passed to the Rules Committee for a second reading.
The bill would not only invest in the cleaning up of water pollution, but the money would create pro-green jobs in our area.
According to the People for Puget Sound website, the fee could generate about $100 million each year; the money prioritized for low impact development and would cut out runoff from roads and parking lots.
What is the main reason the water quality in Puget Sound is deteriorating?
Simple the fact that everybody still uses the Sound as a giant urinal; due to the fact that EPA never implemented the Clean Water Act and that the State probably never enforced their own water pollution regulations.
That worldwide water pollution only is getting worse, is the result of a worldwide incorrect applied water pollution test. By using this essential test incorrect, EPA and the rest of the world ignored all the nitrogenous (urine and protein) waste in municipal sewage, while this waste, like fecal waste, not only exerts an oxygen demand, but in all its forms is a fertilizer for algae and therefore is partly responsible for the eutrophication of open waters. This eutrophication is causing the dead zones, red tides and destruction of coral reefs all over the world.
In 1984 EPA acknowledge the problems with this test, but in stead of correcting this test (so we could also have properly evaluated the true performance of sewage treatment plants and determine what their effluent waste loading are on open waters), EPA allowed an alternative test and officially lowered the goal of the CWA from elimination of all pollution by 1985 (100% treatment) to a measly 35% treatment, without even informing Congress. (www.petermaier.net for more information)
This bill is nothing more than a way to generate funds for the municipalities to comply with their Municipal Stormwater permits. These permits are issued by Washington DDept of Ecology and the specific requirements from legislative action.