Twenty-six groups, including a grocery store, fishing guides and the Washington League of Women Voters recently signed on to a letter, urging Gov. Inslee to protect seafood eaters in Washington State.

From the letter:

From Puget Sound to the Columbia River — and in countless other waterbodies across the state — catching and eating local fish and shellfish is a quintessential part of being a Washingtonian. Yet Washington’s human health water quality standards are among the nation’s least protective. As a result, the state is not doing its job to prevent cancer-causing pollutants from entering our state’s rivers and Puget Sound.

We are asking you to change this.

Download (PDF, 17KB)

Earlier this month, the Seattle Human Rights Commission passed a strongly worded resolution, urging the State of Washington to put into place a realistic fish consumption rate.

From the resolution:

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Seattle Human Rights Commission hereby calls upon the Washington State Department of Ecology to raise its fish consumption rate to that of Oregon’s at 175 g/day using a risk level of 10-6 to ensure that all Washingtonians, even our highest fish consumers, are protected in the free and equal exercise of our human rights to health and our own means of subsistence.

The commission also put together a hand call sheet for people to contact the Department of Ecology and the governor’s office to urge action on the fish consumption rate and water quality standards.

Another great post by Catherine O’Neil at the Progressive Reform blog:

The latest tactic – advanced by an industry consultant – and currently embraced by Washington’s Department of Ecology as its “preferred approach” – is to alter the standard assumption for adult bodyweight, increasing it from 70 kg to 80 kg. This change to Ecology’s (and EPA’s) longstanding practice was suggested on the theory that tribal people, on average, currently have a higher bodyweight, i.e., 79 kg or 81 kg, according to two recent surveys in the Pacific Northwest. The “average American,” too, it was suggested, is currently heavier than in prior years. The difference in the resulting water quality standards as a consequence of this change? The standards would be roughly 10% – 15% less protective.

Last Thursday the state senate committee on Energy, Environment & Telecommunications held a hearing on the fish consumption rate. You can watch the entire hearing here.

There was some media coverage associated with the hearing in the Spokesman Review and Crosscut.

The Senate Energy, Environment and Telecommunications Committee held a hearing on the state fish consumption rate yesterday. Jerry Cornfield covered the fish consumption rate hearing in the Everett Herald.

You can watch it here or in the window below.

Willow shops for clean seafood for her family to cook and eat at home.