Lisa Parshley

I believe strongly in real and enforceable guardrails for AI. You do not need to be an AI expert to know that this technology has great potential to both be a threat to jobs, data privacy, the economy, and even our communities and yet it could provide such amazing advances in sciences like a cure to cancer or even climate change mitigation. We cannot unlock the true potential of AI without adequate guardrails and adequate enforcement.

AI has the potential to amplify biases and discrimination simply based on the developers’ biases being programmed into the AI from the beginning. We must also be aware of this potential as we develop the guardrails for this technology.

Data centers also need guardrails and regulations. Rep Beth Doglio is working on a bill that will provide such regulations from water use (environmental concerns) to what kind of energy production they use when the grid cannot provide the energy to run them. A bill that is also addressing concerns of the native American Tribes of our state. A bill that would require that data centers pay for their energy use and not the utility payers.

Lastly, I firmly believe that the state or all the state should not be giving tax incentives or breaks to any of the builders of Data Centers. If we cannot achieve these regulatory goals, I am for a short-term moratorium on data centers until we can provide such regulations and policy.

KEYWORDS: Guardrails, accountability, regulations, equity, jobs

I believe we must accept the enviable process of climate change has begun and the resulting impacts on our region, state, and local communities. We must channel our funding priorities using CCA dollars to develop sustainable climate adaptation to our infrastructure. By ensuring the use of state money on these projects we will also create and grow green jobs.

We need to use state funding to explore alternative and innovative energy supplies while improving our transmission of energy. We need to look into distributive energy districts and using the renewable energy district models to develop public/private partnerships which include local jurisdictions, state campuses (including state buildings), and private energy companies.

Water quality and access to water will become critical in the future with summer draughts and winter rains without large amounts of snowpack. We as a state must fund research, pilot studies, and projects that will allow access to water for our communities while protecting stream and river flows, and the health of the Puget Sound. Once again, our infrastructure might be an avenue of water reuse in a circular economy fashion.

Food production and safety while improving our environment and limiting our climate impact is a critical need now and in the future. We will need to fund research into providing adequate food while reducing the entry of forever chemicals into our agricultural settings through fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides. We will also in light of DOGE look to our states food safety through ensuring adequate oversight of food production and harvesting.

Water quality of the Puget Sound must be a priority to improve the health of our marine mammals, fish populations, and crustaceans. One such possible way is truly enforcing and incentivizing the Puget Sound General Discharge Permit for wastewater plants. Without this general permit wastewater discharge into Puget Sound (and eventually the ocean) increases human origin contaminants (such as hormones and drugs).

Water quality of the southern Puget Sound could be dramatically improved through removing the dam on Capital Lake and restoring the Deschutes Estuary. Currently, the capital lake is contributing ~63% of the poor water quality in Budd Inlet and consequently the entire southern Puget Sound every time the tide changes.

KEYWORDS: Climate change, forever chemicals, water, water quality, CCA

I believe in all K-12 students getting science education every year. An education that expands on the previous grade’s curriculum. As student show aptitude for science, they should be given access to STEM courses and encouraged and incentivized to pursue further education beyond 12th grade in a STEM field.

Science education should be funded fully by OSPI. Science education should be a graduation requirement from high school, with at least one basic science course.

Science provides critical thinking skills. It allows students to learn how to question the world around them whether that be questioning science, history, civics, or politics. It teaches the difference between facts and truth; facts are derived from research and testing whereas truth can be based on personal beliefs and experiences.

KEYWORDS: science, graduation requirements, funding.

The state must seek federal reimbursement for fires we fight that are on federal land (~44%), especially because of DOGE reducing the funding of the national forest service wildland fire fighting capacity. States in the west are facing a defense of federal forests without adequate compensation.

We must seek to provide adequate mitigation efforts on all state (and federal land). This would include thinning, where possible controlled burns, and removal of debris. We should allow the removed material to be used for resource generation or energy production, which would help provide private public partnerships to fund these mitigation projects.

I support the current Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) codes currently being worked on with DNR and the Building Code Council. When they come back with recommendations or codes the legislature should review them and pass any recommended policy that will help this work.

We should be providing training for all fire departments in the state of Washington on Wildland fire fighting as every city could face what Spokane did this summer.

I support the work that the Office of Insurance Commissioner and legislators are doing around fire insurance for community members.

We should be developing public health policies through the association of public health officials on air quality and health risks.

KEYWORDS: WUI, building code council, mitigation, public health, federal forests

I support and would see more work toward restoration of estuaries, daylighting creek and stream, and the continued effort for culvert removal and conversion. See my comments about Capital Lake dam removal in the Environment questions, this could seriously improve the entire southern Puget Sound water quality (proof is the Dept of Ecology TMDL 2023 report).

We need to do a serious census of pinnipeds; cataloging both native and California transplants. This census would be an important companion for research already performed that catalogs the impact of an overpopulation of pinnipeds on salmon recovery in the Puget Sound and Columbia River. We should then convene a study group to have a very hard and painful conversation about how we remove or reduce the population of non-native pinnipeds from these waterways (trap and release has failed). It is such hard conversation, but we must recognize it is us humans that have unbalanced the ecosystem to a point where over population of one species (pinnipeds) is causing decimation of another species (salmon).

We need to work with wastewater plants to help them see that water is a vital resource that they can produce for their communities. These plants can produce potable water (class A+) and reclaimed water (Class B or A)). Reclaimed water has already been shown to be a safe way to recharge aquifers and support stream/river health during dry summers. I refer to the reclaimed water study performed by the LOTT Water Alliance, a 6 year and 6 million dollars study that won national awards. With such information we should be working with all the state’s wastewater plants to incentivize and encourage development of this water resource.

We need to get the Public Works board to develop a grant process that would encourage and allow our wastewater and stormwater infrastructure to perform pilot studies on innovative water reuse. Such a grant process could help these infrastructure systems become a circular economy providing water as well as processing water.

In Arizona they are working with Solar powered water collection devices, that reclaim water directly from the air. These are being tried for areas without consistent water. Even in these deserts environs there can be quarts or gallons of water captured per device (depending on weather and location). Now I know this seems out there, but we may need this technology in the future (especially in eastern Washington).

KEYWORDS: Water, water reclamation, reclaimed water, public works board