Washington Water Watch: December 2022

Dear Friends,

We are wishing you very happy holidays and hope you are doing well!

This year, as we all continued to be impacted by the COVID pandemic, CELP went through some big changes and accomplished exciting victories. We welcomed two new staff members, Maggie Franquemont as Staff Attorney, and Hillary Jasper Rose as Water Policy & Outreach Coordinator. We have adopted a hybrid working style as we build our team and the world continues to largely run over Zoom.

With the help of an incredible support system we achieved great things in 2021. CELP successfully encouraged the Department of Ecology to select the Nooksack River Basin (WRIA 1) as well as the Roosevelt Lake and middle tributaries (WRIA 58) as the next Washington basins to be adjudicated in coordination with the Nooksack Indian Tribe and Lummi Nation. We hosted our 3rd annual Clean & Abundant Water Lobby day as a virtual week long event helping pass bills for funding river basin adjudication, reducing plastic pollution, preventing seabed mining, and water re-use. CELP helped get a Watershed plan for WRIA 9 approved that would replace water used by new permit exempt well in the Green River watershed. We protected the Skagit River by submitting comments to Ecology in support of their denial of the proposed Golden Eagle water permit. We reached a settlement with the EPA on the Spokane River PCB levels. CELP also submitted comments to Ecology urging reform of Water Banking and the Trust Water Rights programs to curb water rights speculation.

We have accomplished a lot to protect our rivers. As we wrap up the year and look forward to our work in 2022, CELP has big goals. We plan to not only continue our work protecting waters in Washington but take a more proactive role in restoring our waters and fighting for more sustainable and equitable water policies and management.
You can help protect our waters by making an end of year gift to CELP. We are incredibly thankful to have met our $10,000 goal and match! Now our loyal supporter is increasing their donation to match donations dollar for dollar up to $15,000. Help us reach our new goal and be ready to tackle the legislative session and year ahead. You can also help further our mission by sharing our work with your friends and family.

You make our work protecting, preserving, and restoring waters in Washington possible! We are incredibly thankful for our supporters, members, partners, Board of Directors, volunteers, sponsors, staff, and community. Thank you for your dedication to protecting our water resources.

In this issue you will find an update on the Spokane River PCB case with a call to action, our comments on an Airway Heights water right application, information on the Salmon Recovery Plan, our thoughts on Puget Sound Partnership’s State of the Sound report, an article on water speculation, water and fish news, a recap on our Celebrate Water event, an announcement that we postponed our CLE workshop series with new dates TBA, and information on ways to support CELP.

Sincerely,
Trish Rolfe

Executive Director

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