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03/13/2009: "SB 5836 Not Going Anywhere"

A bill introduced in the State Senate that would have given the State control of what would normally be under the control of counties, caught the attention of the SJ County Council; but even after it turned out San Juan County was not intended to be a part of the Marine Transportation Facilities Bill, the Council was concerned enough to fire off a letter against it.

Jeff Morris, Speaker Pro Tempore of the Washington State House of Representatives, has informed the Island Guardian “the bill itself was intended to identify a specific project to move gravel from ‘pit to pier’ as being of statewide significance due to the need for gravel in highway construction projects.”

Morris said that there were some problems -not in SJ County- that “the county-level permitting process was being hampered by local officials acting outside their normal jurisdiction, so the Senate was considering legislation to resolve the issue at the state level.”

SB 5836 got a public hearing in the Senate Transportation Committee on Feb. 23, but was never brought up for a vote. The deadline for bills to be read in from the committees in their house of origin has passed, so Morris added “I think the first thing to address is that SB 5836 is a "dead bill."

Morris said it is important to note “The legislation would NOT have removed the need for permitting - it would simply have transferred permitting authority from Jefferson County (where this specific project was located) to the Washington Department of Natural Resources.”

In any case, the state legislature has been put on notice by the SJ County Council they would not approve of the state taking away any of their authority; thank you very much.