Washington Water Watch: August Edition

September 2, 2020
Center for Environmental Law & Policy

Dear friends of CELP,

As the summer winds down in this crazy year, I hope you all got a chance to get out and recreate on Washington’s amazing rivers and streams, a great way to recharge from the stress we are all experiencing. These waters are the life blood of Washington that should be protected and celebrated by all. But sadly, there are many who only see our waterways as a resource to be exploited harming fish and the public who rely on them. The impacts from Climate Change are only making a dire situation even worse.

That’s why CELP continues our important work to protect, preserve, and restore Washington’s waters now and for future generations. But we can’t do it alone. We rely heavily on support from individuals like you, so if you are able please support CELP’s important work by donating on our website: www.celp.org.

In spite of our work, sometimes our efforts fail, and that happened with our challenge to the flawed summer flow in the Spokane River Instream Flow Rule. The State Supreme Court ruled against us, and now the people and businesses in Spokane are the real losers. The Department of Ecology can now issue water rights that will drop the flow in the river to drought levels during the summer, making recreation on the river almost impossible.

In this issue you will find more information on this State Supreme Court ruling, Governor Inslee’s letters pausing the proposed Chehalis River dam, a bio of Celebrate Water’s guest speaker, the American Water Resource Association’s state conference event, and more.

I also want to send out a big thank you to all of our Celebrate Waters Sponsors. They play a huge role in helping us do our important work!

Sincerely,

Trish Rolfe

Executive Director

trolfe@celp.org

PS. Please tune into Celebrate Waters Virtual event on September 17th and stay safe!