Stlhdfishn / RiverLiver

You are so right!

People who work for the WDOE should be ashamed of themselves (especially the AG's attorney and his staff who supported Tacoma at the Pollution Control Board Hearings appeal of Tacoma's 401 permit) for how they have jumped into bed with the huge utilities such as Tacoma Power. Even though it appears that Tacoma did not have much to do with this event; they (Tacoma) have chosen not to go against other Hydro power owners like the BPA and the Lewis County PUD and speak out.

During the Pollution Control Board Hearings (PCHB) appeal over WDOE issuing Tacoma a new 401 permit, the Friends of Cowlitz, CPR-Fish, and the Cowlitz Tribe (Appellants) challenged WDOE for issuing a faulty 401 permit to Tacoma. Tacoma was in violating of state standards for Total Dissolved Gas (TDG) at their projects, and yet WDOE went ahead and issued them there new 401 Permit without making Tacoma correct the problem at their dams. It was one of the main issues that the appellants (us) had raised in our complaint and appeal to overturn Ecologies issuance of the 401 Permit.

WDOE knew that they were caught, and knew that they would loose this issue that was before PCHB. So both WDOE and Tacoma Power had to cover their butts before the board made its ruling against them and overturned the issuance of the 401 Permit. Both Tacoma and WDOE were basically against the people, and attempted to cover both of their butts!

Two days before the PCHB hearing, WDOE issued and order finding that Tacoma was in violation of state standards on TDG. The order was so well written and strongly worded that it would force Tacoma into coming into compliance. The order, as written, made our complaint about TDG issue to become a "moot issue". The way that the order was written, it made it mandatory for Tacoma "to take actions" to achieve compliance and to come into full compliance by June 14, 2007.

Little did anyone know (including the PCHB) that both WDOE and Tacoma were rewriting an amended order while we were in the trial. Basically WDOE allowed TACOMA to rewrite its own order and gutted the original order until it was next to being worthless!

As just one quick and sickening example of how Tacoma and WDOE jumped into bed together, 2 moths after the PCHB trail, (August 20, 2002) WDOE issued an amended order which changed the meaning and power of the order which originally read;

"
1. Mossyrock and Mayfield Dams have exceeded and are reasonably anticipated to violate State of Washington water quality standards during periodic high flow events for total dissolved gas as documented by monitoring and modeling conducted by and for Tacoma Power in connection with the relicensing of the Cowlitz project.

For these reasons, and in accordance with RCW 90.48, it is ordered that Tacoma Power take the following actions to achieve compliance no later than June 14, 2007 with standards for total dissolved gas. These actions are required at the locations known as the Mayfield Dam and Mossyrock Dam.

The new amended order now has been gutted to say; … "For these reasons, and in accordance with RCW 90.48, it is ordered that Tacoma Power take the following actions to ["SEEK TO"] achieve compliance no later than June 14, 2007 with standards for total dissolved gas.

Legally, it lets Tacoma off the hook, and it doesn’t force Tacoma to come into compliance; instead, all it does is to make Tacoma look for new ways to correct there violations of TGD. The entire amended order has been changed, and they never even notified the PCHB or the Appellants in a timely mater so that the order could be appealed! They are both a bunch of RAT's…who are infected with the plague!!!

Now we are forced into appealing WDOE/ Tacoma's new revised order again and they are saying that we can't do it because we didn't file our appeal within the 30 day time period after it was issue! WDOE is no friend to the fish on the Cowlitz and there record during the PCHB last year proves so!

The Cowlitz Fall Project was allowed to get its 401 Permit by default, and is not even required to monitor for TDG from its project! And you can thank WDOE for that one too!

And some people on our board wonder why I criticize our state agencies!!


Cowlitzfisherman