Marine Sewage Disposal
#1458: Marine Sewage Disposal (2006)
Management of on-site sewage disposal systems in marine areas.
Supported by Sierra Club (3 points).
Signed into law.
This bill will improve monitoring of septic systems near Puget Sound, and help identify and fix failing systems. Failing septic systems are one of the biggest problems facing Puget Sound.
This legislation passed the House last year, but died in the Senate. It started in the House again this year, and after some additional work in the interim, it passed the House with a healthier margin.
It faced a tougher battle in the Senate, where Sen. Tim Sheldon tried to block it. When the bill came up for a vote, he was prepared to offer over fifty amendments, effectively filibustering the bill. But after the first few amendments, there was a motion to table the remaining amendments.
This is a procedural vote, and a couple of Democrats were excused, so we needed to pick up two Republicans in order to approve the motion. Generally speaking, the parties stay together on procedural votes; it's highly unusual for any to break ranks. But on this vote, Sen. Dave Schmidt and Sen. Dan Swecker, both Republicans, stood in favor of the motion and delivered the decisive votes that killed all the other amendments. Without their support, the bill likely would not have come up for a vote because all of the amendments would have taken far too much time.
Rep. Sam Hunt, Senators Phil Rockefeller and Harriet Spanel for sponsoring the legislation and moving it through the process.
Sen. Tim Sheldon for trying to kill the bill.
Senators Dave Schmidt and Dan Swecker for breaking with their party on the procedural vote that allowed the bill to come up for a vote in a timely fashion.