Residents get a breather from stinky beaches under Eide plan

OLYMPIA – Sea Lettuce stinks.

That’s not something that residents of Dumas Bay, on the west end of Federal Way need to be told, though. A plan by Sen. Tracey J. Eide, D-Federal Way, to develop a program to clean up the stinky seaweed passed the Senate today and now moves on to the House of Representatives.

Explosive Sea Lettuce blooms create aquatic “dead zones,” killing birds, fish and plants. Top that off with the seaweed rotting and it’s not hard to imagine what the beach smells like. It creates an unbearable – and unhealthy – situation for people who live near or visit beaches around Puget Sound.

In 1990, 92 tons of seaweed was removed from beaches around Fauntleroy, and Eide says it’s an even bigger problem at Dumas Bay.

“We’re finding a way here to solve this problem and provide tools for counties, cities and the state to work together,” Eide said. “There is a real human element to this, it’s made a lot of people’s lives miserable around Dumas Bay, and it also causes health effects, eye, lung and throat irritation,” she said.

The bill allows cities and counties to form Beach Management Districts, similar to Lake Management Districts, funding work to clean up sea life that spreads like wildfire, water quality improvements and runoff control. It also puts the gears in motion for the Department of Ecology to study the underlying causes of the intense blooms and the impacts to human health.

“Hopefully we can leave Olympia this session and have a way to not have these beaches stink, I’m going to continue to work to help the bill move through the House as well,” Eide said.

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