Send Garbage to the Arid East I respectfully disagree with The News Tribune's (editorial, 5-2) position on the new garbage dump proposed for development in Graham. The bill signed by Gov. Gary Locke that is meant to kill the project is responsible public policy, irrespective of claims of financial devastation for Pierce County residents. The Tacoma area continues to grow. Regardless of the state Growth Management Act, pressure to develop lands in places such as Graham in the next few decades will be intense. By the time, there will be a need for another dump beyond the one proposed for development right now. Meanwhile, any trash heap among the evergreens in Graham, if built, will stand as a monument to environmental insensitivity worse than any forest clearcut. All of Pierce County's garbage should be hauled to the arid and rural counties in Eastern Washington, where little population growth is anticipated. Seattle's garbage regularly moves through Tacoma by train to those counties. While there is a need to find new places to dump garbage as the Puget Sound area's population mushrooms, the stronger argument is that without clean water, forested slopes and open meadows, the Puget Sound of boundless natural wonders will become a myth in a few decades. Nothing humans can design can mitigate the reality that a landfill is a stinking pit of garbage. Gov. Locke made the right decision about the proposed Graham dump. JONATHAN FESTE Spokane