LWVTC General Meeting – Water Quality/Fish Consumption

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When:
February 26, 2015 @ 6:00 pm
2015-02-26T18:00:00-08:00
2015-02-26T18:30:00-08:00
Where:
Traditions Cafe
300 5th Avenue Southwest
Olympia, WA 98501
USA
Cost:
Free
Contact:
League of Women Voters of Thurston County
360-352-8220

We are delighted to announce that our speaker on February 26th will be Senator John McCoy. Senator McCoy, who represents the 38th District and is a Tulalip tribal member, will be giving us a presentation on fish consumption rates, a value that is directly tied to water quality.

Over the past year, there has been a major initiative, led by our state’s tribes, to increase ‘fish consumption rates’ which would raise our water quality standards by requiring local governments and businesses to have more stringent discharge systems. A cleaner discharge means a decrease of pollutants in our waters, and in turn lessens the amount of toxins that we ingest when we eat fish. Our current standard is the lowest in the nation. The new standard will be set by the Department of Ecology. The current fish consumption rate is about a quarter of an ounce of fish per day. Everyone recognizes that average people, and high fish consumers, such as our state’s tribes, eat much more than ¼ of an ounce of fish per day.

Last year, at the urging of the tribes, stakeholders and the Department of Ecology started negotiating a new rate. Local governments and businesses are concerned about the financial impact of having to install better technology in their discharge systems. Tribes and environmental groups remain apprehensive that the new proposed standards still allow too many toxins in the water, affecting fish and leaving too many carcinogens for human consumption. Come and hear Senator McCoy explain why fish consumption is the measure used to establish pollution controls and discharge rates, the current state of discussions, and why this measure is so crucial to our state’s tribes and environmental groups.

Please join us at 6 pm on February 26th at Traditions.

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