PEER Chapters - Washington

Sue Gunn is Director of Washington PEER. She spent nearly a decade working for The Wilderness Society in Washington, DC as the Director of Budget & Appropriations and Director of the National Parks Program. Prior to that, she spent another decade working for the U.S. Geological Survey as an isotope geologist. She has a PhD in isotope geochemistry from UC Santa Cruz, MS in geology from San Diego State University and a BA in Political Science from the University of Maryland. She currently serves on the board of directors of Wilderness Watch.

Sue Gunn
P.O. Box 2618
Olympia, WA 98507
phone: (360) 528-2110 email: wapeer@peer.org

Our Mission
Washington PEER invites current and former public employees to contact us to help focus our campaigns in an effort to hold governments accountable to their environmental mandates, scientific integrity and public employee rights in the workplace. We need your input to guide us to important environmental issues that we can try to influence by submitting formal comments on agency actions, litigating, negotiating, using the media to make government’s actions more transparent, filing administrative complaints and working collaboratively with other public interest groups and unions to advance our mission.

Along with our campaigns, we provide referrals and resources to public employees facing the dilemma of whether to honor their agency or their integrity. We occasionally host community events and offer opportunities for retired natural resource professionals and citizens to volunteer to help with some of our campaigns.

The Washington office of PEER will focus on two issues in the upcoming year: water and whistleblowers.

Washington Water
PEER has been working with public employees and other interested parties on reforming aspects of both the water resource and water quality activities of Washington State. We agreed that the Department of Ecology’s water programs lack the scientific infrastructure to make informed policy decisions as well as lacks the will to fund such a program and the staff to manage the state’s water resources.

Collectively we agreed to:
1. Work to make Washington State law recognize the public trust duty for in-stream flows
2. Develop the necessary data infrastructure to provide for information-based decision-making
3. Work to increasing funding for various programs within Ecology that are effective in meeting the above goals.
4. Protect Tribal Water Rights.

A. Groundwater Monitoring and Assessment
PEER and other environmental organizations are working to create a statewide groundwater monitoring and assessment program. Such a program would provide information on both the quality and quantity of groundwater in the state. It is this type of baseline information that monitors long-term trends that is needed to provide for informed decision making.

Go here to view the appropriations request to start two pilot groundwater monitoring programs in the 2008-2009 state budget. Contact your representative and senator and ask them to work to get the funds necessary to start this program.

Groundwater facts:
· It serves as the drinking water for 60% of the state’s citizens. The state’s population is growing fast and is expected to increase by another million in the next decade.
· In 2005, 7000 new water supply wells were installed into state aquifers.
· The rising demand is a response to restrictions on new surface water withdrawals.
· Climate change, drought conditions and changes in runoff patterns have all increased interest in the use of aquifers.
· Groundwater influences surface water flows, water quality and habitat value.
· Groundwater and surface create a single, interconnected resource.
· The water quality of state aquifers is under stress.
· Annually a dozen or more public wells are abandoned or deepened.
· Increasingly stormwater runoff is being redirected to the subsurface through drywells and infiltration basins.
· Goundwater is receiving effluent from more than a million households, muni and industrial septic systems.
· Groundwater is also affected by excess irrigation water.
· The recharge of groundwater is dependent on rain – deforestation, increase in impervious surfaces, climate change and high rates of withdrawal all combine to reduce the recharge.
· Despite the high use of groundwater and the stress on the system – there is NO systematic statewide program to monitor and assess ambient groundwater conditions.
· State, local, regional and federal groundwater studies exists but they aren’t coordinated. There is no central repository for that work and that data isn’t comparable.
· Monitoring groundwater isn’t an easy task – as the system is complex, large and variable. It also moves slowly to respond to recharge. Therefore the longer we wait the greater the problem in recognizing and managing the problem.

The benefits of a groundwater program are fourfold – it allows for a 1) hydrologic characterization, 2) water level monitoring (baseline on aquifer storage and recharge, groundwater flow direction, effects of aquifer development, effects of climate variability and trend monitoring), 3) water quality monitoring and 4) groundwater/surface water interaction data.

B. Navy Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) program
PEER will challenge the Navy’s Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) program. In 2002 PEER exposed this detonation program that had been operating since the 1970 without environmental review or oversight. The EOD operation is a constant assault to fish and marine mammals in the Sound. On a monthly basis, this training program threatens federally protected salmon, trout and orcas by destroying thousands of foraging fish, the primary component in the food supply for this chain of marine life. PEER’s goal is to force the Navy to comply with environmental laws. We will work to accelerate the stalled NEPA process and pursue litigation against the Navy’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal program with organizations interested in protecting the Sound.

Whistleblower Protections
Washington’s Whistleblower law needs to be updated and clarified, and 2007 is the year to do so. In the fall of 2006 PEER came out with a study that rated and ranked the nation’s whistleblower laws. Washington ranks 34th out of 51 (50 states and the District of Columbia); its law is on a par with that of Alaska and Louisiana but substantially weaker than Oregon and less effective than the whistleblower laws in states such as Idaho, Nebraska, Oklahoma and West Virginia.

The central weakness of the Washington whistleblower law is that it limits protection to reports filed with the State Auditor. Consequently, it does not protect employee who disclose “inconvenient truths” in –

· Testifying before the state legislature or a state court;
· Reporting a crime to the police or prosecutors; or
· Filing reports with federal funding or oversight agencies.

The importance of state whistleblower laws has been magnified by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision (Ceballos v.Garcetti) stripping government employees of all First Amendment protection when speaking within the scope of their duties. In addition, over the past few years, the Supreme Court has also denied state workers coverage under federal whistleblower laws. Consequently, state statutes are increasingly the only defense for government workers in state agencies who face reprisal for reporting wrongdoing.

PEER will work to amend the current statute to provide protections that allow a broader range of outlets for employees to blow the whistle as well as work to protect employees’ rights to their professional opinions and prohibitions against altering scientific findings.

Imagine if Washington’s environmental laws were enforced, science was clearly applied to policy decisions and public employees could carry out their agency’s environmental mandates without fear of retaliation or retribution. This is the future that Washington PEER works to create.

Volunteer with Washington PEER
We are looking for retired natural resource professionals who want to put their skills to work advancing environmental protection, scientific integrity, and ethics in government. Depending on your skills and interests you can help review technical documents, prepare technical comments on agency proposals, file public records requests, or help with general outreach work. Send an email to wapeer@peer.org or give us a call at (360) 528-2110.

Learn more about PEER activities in Washington