Pierce County petition against environmental lawbreaking

[eridani]

A lot of you may have seen the new petition being circulated by We the People of Pierce County regarding enforcement of Washington State's environmental laws. The citizens of Pierce County are about to speak! We have been overwhelmed by volunteer signature gatherers, and have collected hundreds and hundreds of signatures in just a week. Due to popular demand, we have created an online component for this petition, which is now published at:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/tell-pierce-county-to-enforce-environmental-laws

This flooding was caused by a developer who broke the law and filled in natural wetlands. All that water had to go someplace, and houses and vehicles were flooded, the water was polluted, and the developer was never held responsible. Pierce County was unable to stop this developer from destroying this wetland, because the County Council has never codified the environmental laws of Washington State. This is just wrong! All of this water belongs in a stream or river, helping to support salmon habitat - instead, it's stuck in this ditch, polluted and useless, all because Pierce County does not have the power to make unscrupulous developers follow the law!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/tell-pierce-county-to-enforce-environmental-laws

Sign the petition to tell the Pierce County Council to enforce Washington State's environmental laws!

Every day more wetlands are being illegally destroyed, but Pierce County has no way to stop it... this cannot be allowed to continue. Let's send an unambiguous message to the County Council from the citizenry of Pierce County - we expect our elected officials to enforce the state environmental laws!

The Attorney General has confirmed that all enacted laws are enforceable; however, few if any of the enacted environmental laws are enforced in Pierce County. These laws still have not been added into our Comprehensive Plan, so have not been made into regulations and codified to allow enforcement. Pierce County currently has no staff authorized to enforce these laws, including writing tickets, imposing fines, ordering restoration, or rescinding permits.

This has resulted in great loss of our natural water resources, deprived our Salmon bearing creeks of much needed water supply, loss of wetlands and ground water resources, toxic algae blooms and warm water in our lakes, endangered our watersheds and aquifers, caused property damage to others by displacing wetland and flood plain waters, and allowed inappropriate development to occur in environmentally sensitive areas.

Authorized enforcement and penalties assigned to these laws could have prevented much of this damage and saved valuable taxpayer dollars used to correct this damage after the fact.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/tell-pierce-county-to-enforce-environmental-laws

Sincerely,
Andrew Bacon, on behalf of We the People of Pierce County