WA Ecology Fine Sediment Rule

Thanks to a Northwest Environmental Advocates lawsuit, Washington State is taking steps to adopt a fine sediment rule to protect spawning salmon.  But, as NWEA points out in recent public comments to the Washington Department of Ecology, those steps are too timid.  For example, when salmon and steelhead populations are in severe decline, they need more protection from the fine sediment that smothers their eggs and prevents hatching than an otherwise robust population of fish would need.  Ecology, ever mindful of not causing political problems by increasing regulation of logging and farming operations, has proposed just the bare minimum.