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“How many of you like Puget Sound?” I ask. Three hundred and eighty kids raise their hands and wave enthusiastically at me from the cafeteria floor. I have just been handed an oversized, crayon-colored check for $400 at the Adams Elementary School Penny Harvest Grant Awards Assembly. The check number is a whimsical 5,926,548,721,038. Drawn on the check is a boat named “Clean up.” It drives across the check towards a dirty patch of black water, a floating red can and a blue water bottle. After the assembly I am served homemade rice crispy treats by students wearing black flannel pajamas with orange and red flames, fuzzy slippers, a blue gauzy fairy dress and a shiny black velveteen cape. It is Spirit Week and today is “Crazy Dress Day.” It was preceded by “Crazy Hair Day and “Crazy Hat Day.” Last fall the Adams Penny Harvest Leadership Team collected 800 pounds of coins. After interviewing students about their priorities, the Team looked for community organizations to match those priorities including the environment and wildlife. Then the Adams Lunch Bunch took over! After extensive research, the Lunch Bunch identified the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance as a possible grant recipient and I was called in for an interview. Now, I’ve been cross-examined by opposing counsel before the Pollution Control Hearings Board, negotiated with some of the top attorneys in the state and testified before tough legislative committees, but those 4th and 5th graders asked really tough questions! “Why is it legal to pollute Puget Sound?” one girl asked me. The question sparkled with clarity, directness and innocence. I was stunned. My mind raced to all of the usual excuses: mixing zones, inadequate water quality standards, insufficient technology, persistent bioaccumulative toxins, weak public agencies and fearful politicians. I struggled for an answer that would make sense. I was stumped. I could only think of complicated excuses that would dull their minds and then lull them to sleep. For almost 9 years I have poured my heart and soul into protecting Puget Sound. But, I have spent so much time working within the Clean Water Act “system” that I had forgotten, at some deep level, that it does not make sense for it to be legal to pollute Puget Sound. I was caught by the Lunch Bunch in a crazy adult lie. Thank you! I will never be the same.
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