River provides example

The Department of Ecology, with the intent of cleaning up the Spokane River, issued permits in June limiting how much toxic pollution and wastewater can be pumped into the river. Kaiser Aluminum is appealing that permit, saying that outcomes from a regional task force aimed at reducing PCBs should not be a part of the permit.

So, let’s get this straight. A corporation that is allowed to legally pollute the river gets to ask for the right to pollute it even more. We the people don’t have the right to ask that the river be protected from polluters, because the law allows the river to be trashed.

That’s exactly why we need the Community Bill of Rights, which provides stronger protections for the river, which can be activated by ordinary citizens, and which denies corporations the right to have more say than people and nature.

Isn’t that a better way of cleaning up the river?

Tyler Brown

Spokane