Law to stop landfill was necessary

Your April 27 editorial, "Governor blunders in landfill bargain," is filled with inaccuracies and misleading statements. Irregardless of your speculation of the motives and prospects of political dealings, your portrayal of the landfill and its current permitting status is simply wrong and flies in the face of the facts.

The project was not upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court did not rule on the merits of the project or its associated environmental risks. The court only looked to the question of whether the Corps of Engineers had jurisdiction to issue a 404 wetland fill permit. The court found that the Corps did not have jurisdiction but did not comment on the Corps finding of significant environmental consequences and that alternatives existed to reduce and even eliminate these risks.

To imply the project got a thumbs-up from the federal court is misleading. To state that the courts ruled that the wetland issues were properly reviewed and approved by the county and state agencies is wrong. It is disturbing that The News Tribune would make that clearly false statement when the truth is easily obtained. Despite your assertion to the contrary, this proposed project does pose significant risks to the resources of the Nisqually Basin and the treaty rights of the Nisqually Tribe. There is no guarantee that the proposed liner system will not fail at some point in time, and when it does, the leachate poison will make its way into the drinking water into Muck Creek, and eventually into the Nisqually River and the Nisqually Indian Reservation. The consequences will be felt by all of us many years after the millions of dollars in profit are made and the applicants have left the basin.

Look at the facts surrounding landfills in our area. There are few if any landfills in Western Washington that have not failed and leaked poison into the drinking water and the nearby streams. At the time they were permitted, no one believed they would leak either. A look down the road in Pierce County reveals what happens when a landfill leaks: EPA Superfund cleanup at a cost of millions to the taxpayers.

Once the landfill is built it is there forever, and the Nisqually Tribe will bear the risks of eventual failure in terms of lost fish resources and the health of its people. Gov. Locke and the Legislature, led by Rep. Tom Campbell and Sens. Marilyn Rasmussen and Tom Swecker, did the right thing to protect the Nisqually Basin and the drinking water for thousands of Pierce County residents by passing SB 5729. They should be commended for taking a strong stand for fish, water and people. The Department of Ecology should now do its job and enforce this wise and necessary law.

GEORGIANA KAUTZ
Natural resources manager
DAVID A. TROUTT
Natural Resources Director
Nisqually Indian Tribe
Olympia
May 02, 1999