By Bill Sheets
For The Herald
EDMONDS — The chances are good Brightwater could be stopped from coming to Edmonds.
That was the message given to an overflow crowd of about 175 people Thursday regarding state legislation aimed at preventing King County from building a regional sewage plant in Edmonds.
"You have some very good people on both sides of the aisle," said Phil Talmadge, former state Supreme Court justice and state senator, in reference to legislators who have lent their verbal support to the bills.
Talmadge has been advising Edmonds on the issue.
Senate Bill 6366 and House Bill 2340 would require any governmental entity that aims to site a facility outside its jurisdiction to receive formal approval of the governing body of the area in question.
That city or county would base its decision on whether the project is consistent with its comprehensive plan.
The bills’ language includes a clause making it retroactive to cover any project initiated but not yet approved.
The prime sponsors are Sen. Paull Shin and Rep. Brian Sullivan, Mukilteo Democrats who represent the 21st legislative district, which includes Edmonds.
The Senate Local Government Committee conducted a hearing in Olympia on SB 6366 early Thursday — the same day as the Edmonds town meeting.
Sullivan, Shin, Edmonds Mayor Gary Haakenson and members of the Edmonds protest group the Washington Tea Party testified in favor of the bill.
A hearing has not been scheduled for the House version.
Talmadge was asked whether King County-area lawmakers would try to prevent the bills from passing.
"I wouldn’t say necessarily that King County would vote as a bloc," he said.
While any two government agencies of 10,000 or more population each could together form a municipal metropolitan corporation of the type created by the merger of King County and Metro — which gives it power of eminent domain in other jurisdictions — King County Metro is currently the only one in the state, Talmadge said.
That means that most lawmakers won’t be voting against the status quo in their own districts.
The ideals of direct representation and local control are popular enough among legislators that the bills will have a good chance "if (lawmakers) are consistent with their own principles," Talmadge said.
The issue, Sullivan said, is about "being able to vote for those who make decisions on your behalf and being able to influence those decisions."
The issue of representation is what influenced the Edmonds anti-Brightwater group to change its name from the Say No to Brightwater Committee to the Washington Tea Party, said member Barbara Chase. "No expropriation without representation," she said.
Such grass-roots efforts are what will ultimately make the difference, officials told the audience. They urged citizens to write e-mails to lawmakers.
Bill Sheets is a staff writer for the Enterprise weekly newspapers. You can reach him at 425-673-6525 or by e-mail sheets@heraldnet.com.
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