Letters

Volume XXIX, Number IX, April 2010

(206) 789-7350, fax (206) 789-6392 Website: http://www.48north.com

richard@48north.com

Associate Editor/Race/Current Events: Karen Higginson

karen@48north.commichael@48north.com

Classifieds/Display Advertising Cai Weir

Culinary Cruiser: Amanda Swan Neal

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bookkeeper@48north.com Contributing Editors

cai@48north.com Bookkeeper email:

Advertising Director Michael Collins

Managing Editor Richard Hazelton

At the January Seattle Boat Show, there was a lot of buzz about Puget Soundkeeper Alliance sending letters to four companies with five boatyards inside the Locks, telling them that they were going to be sued for not doing enough toward reducing copper emissions in the runoff from their boatyards. This came as quite a shock to them as they had reduced their emissions significantly over the past several years. One of the companies, CSR Marine, had even been participating in a pilot study with the Washington State Department of Ecology to find effective and workable solutions for the runoff problem. What made it even more of a surprise was that the boatyards, and Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, through the Northwest Marine Trade Association, had been working together for years on the reduction of pollutants running into the water. NMTA, also taken aback, immediately tried to step in and mediate some kind of compromise. It was with this expectation that we didn’t report on this controversy last month, thinking that surely a reasonable agreement would be reached. Unfortunately, after a couple meetings, nothing was resolved. What to do? Obviously, Puget Soundkeeper Alliance had their minds set. They had a game plan which they’d worked in the past – they threaten the boatyard with a suit, then reach a settlement with the target boatyard, which basically consists of paying all of Puget Soundkeeper Alliance’s legal bills for the action. They make their point and they’ve sent their message to the boatyard. And what monies go toward improving the environment? None – the only real winners being the lawyers. Boatyards that have struggled through a down economy the last couple years, now have even less money to put toward their environmental programs. Ecology can take some of the heat for this as their permit

program is lagging sorely behind. Once again they are promising a new permit with new guidelines at the end of this month, but that’s been promised before with nothing happening. Ideally, boatyards could just throw a lot of money at the

problem, and some have. But those that don’t have that kind of money, but are working to reduce their pollution levels, and have, in fact, reduced their pollutants significantly, should not be targeted for their efforts by those that have nothing to lose. This is but a snapshot of the problem. For a more in depth

picture of what is happening with the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance versus the boatyards, see the article by Jeffrey D. Briggs on page 38.

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It’s Not Easy Being Green

Editor

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