Recent News Articles

Hazardous-chemicals tax gaining momentum

From Water and Washington News - Sightline Daily. Published on Mar 10, 2010.

Environmentalists seeking to clean up Puget Sound may be on the verge of a major political victory, with a proposal to boost the state's hazardous-substances tax to deal with polluted stormwater gaining traction in the closing days of the legislative session.

Oil industry still fighting clean water tax

From Water and Washington News - Sightline Daily. Published on Mar 09, 2010.

Environmental lobbyists dramatically reduced a proposed tax increase on toxic chemicals to try to win approval from Washington lawmakers. But the oil industry is still fighting the plan, which would help cleanup polluted stormwater.

Besieged by water, Hoh Tribe seeks national park land

From Water and Washington News - Sightline Daily. Published on Mar 09, 2010.

As the Hoh Tribe's tiny reservation is eaten away by the Hoh River, tribal members are hoping Congress grants them a small strip of Olympic National Park so they can move to higher ground.

Worry over low-oxygen zones in ocean

From Water and Washington News - Sightline Daily. Published on Mar 07, 2010.

Lower levels of oxygen in the oceans off the Pacific Northwest coast could be another sign of fundamental changes linked to global climate change, scientists say. In spots off WA and OR, the almost complete absence of oxygen has left piles of Dungeness crab carcasses littering the ocean floor, crippled colonies of sea anemones and produced mats of potentially noxious bacteria.

Legal threat turns small boatyard upside down

From Water and Washington News - Sightline Daily. Published on Mar 05, 2010.

For a small Seattle boatyard, life was turned upside down since it and four other local boatyards received letters of intent to sue from Puget Soundkeeper Alliance over alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act.