Declaration of Nina Bell

Declaration of Nina Bell

DECLARATION OF NINA BELL IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFF’S RESPONSE TO MOTION FOR A STAY PENDING APPEAL

A core component of NWEA’s mission is to ensure that Washington’s water quality standards—which must, by law, protect these salmonid species and the species that depend upon them, such as the Southern Resident killer whales—are both legally and scientifically supported. Often this has required litigation. And often that litigation has proved
successful, which I view as a failing comment on Washington’s progress toward protecting these species as the law requires.

The impetus for this particular lawsuit was two-fold. First, Washington’s fish and aquatic-dependent wildlife suffer the ill effects of many toxic pollutants; yet, the various programs of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”)—designed and intended to control toxic pollution from permitted point sources and unpermitted nonpoint source runoff—have proven wholly
ineffectual at ensuring water quality that is not toxic to salmonids, orcas, and other species. I know this firsthand and through decades of interaction with the Washington Department of Ecology (“Ecology”) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”)