Bill Sterud, vice-chairman of the Puyallup Tribal Council, writes in the Tacoma Weekly that the debate on water quality in Washington should be about protecting people:
To us, the answers are simple. We want rules that will protect all of us – the health of all citizens of Washington State, including all of our members. At the heart of this matter for the Puyallup Tribe is the protection of our people, our culture and our fishery. We expect to be able to eat and sell fish that are not contaminated both now and in the future. We expect the state to make risk management decisions to avoid harm to all of us, certainly to those most at risk, our children and elderly. We expect pollution to cause negligible or essentially zero cancer risk. We agree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the cancer risk level currently in the rules should not be changed. We intend to live up to our obligations to protect and preserve the water resource, and the fishery, for future generations, and not put future generations at greater risk of cancer.
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