EVERETT HERALD, Summary:
Everett voters are considering Everett Initiative 24-03, which proposes granting legal rights to the Snohomish River Watershed. Everett 24-03 aims to empower the community to take proactive measures against environmental harm. This would do things like help ensure that development projects are accountable for their impact on the watershed. The opposition is largely developers.
The article states, “Multiple federal and state laws already govern the watershed,” and Everett 24-03 specifically says it does not supersede those laws. “However, laws like the Clean Water Act or Shorelines Act act differently than the proposed ordinance. Those laws regulate levels of pollution or destruction. The ballot measure flips the script, working as a preventative measure” by giving notice that anyone who might harm the watershed could be held accountable.
“It’s very easy to damage an ecosystem,” said Abi Ludwig, a 24-03 campaign spokesperson. “It’s hard to restore one.”
It also costs local taxpayers a lot of money for that restoration.
The article continues, “The initiative follows the growing Rights of Nature movement to enshrine legal standing for ecosystems or species, the same as people or corporations. Tamaqua Borough, Pennsylvania, was the first community to give rights to nature when the town passed an ordinance stopping a toxic sludge dump from being built. Since then numerous communities, cities and even countries have granted rights to nature.” And despite the opposition claiming Everett Initiative 24-03 would encourage frivolous lawsuits, that has not been the case in those communities that have passed rights of nature ordinances.
“A 2018 effort from Olympia Urban Waters League to stop a development on the Moxlie Creek Estuary sparked the Snohomish River campaign. Longtime resident and environmental activist Harry Branch tried to fight the development, but lost because of the creek’s lack of standing.
‘One reason other species (or ecosystems) don’t have standing is because they can’t stand up in court and talk,’ Branch wrote at the time.”
Read more at Everett initiative asks: Should the Snohomish River have legal rights?, by Eliza Aronson, Everett Herald, November 1, 2024.
