Gas and motor oils are the largest pollutants of Puget Sound, lakes, and rivers throughout the state, says Brendon Cechovic, executive director of Washington Conservation Voters. And today within the next week, state legislators in the House and Senate plan on introducing twin bills that would impose a one percent fee on hazardous substances—like petroleum, pesticides, and herbicides—in order to fund the cleanup of Puget Sound and other Washington waterways.

If approved, the measure would impose a one percent fee on the wholesale price of petroleum and other major water pollutants. The legislation, Cechovic says, "targets refiners, not consumers—we're trying to hold the people who actually profit from these pollutants accountable" for water cleanup.

But that tactic—making refiners pay—is exactly what oil refineries in the state have been working hard to block for the past year. Tesoro Co. and others lobbied against a hazardous material tax bill last session (the bill failed to make it out of committee), then the same refineries bankrolled Tim Eyman's successful Initiative 1053 campaign, which prevents legislators from altering the state's tax structure without a two-thirds vote for the next two years. This essentially prevented environmental groups from reintroducing the hazardous materials bill during the 2011-2012 session; there wouldn't be the votes needed to pass it.

Cechovic estimates that the bill—which gets around the Eyman problem by imposing a fee instead of a tax on pollutants—would raise $100 million annually for waterway cleanup, but that could fluctuate. "Since the fee is fixed to the price [of the substances] and isn't just a flat, per-barrel tax, we'll get more money for cleanup if the cost of these substances rise." Those funds would be funneled into a special account and doled out through a competitive grant process to local jurisdictions who demonstrate a need for waterway cleanup projects.

But environmental lobbyists expect a fight to get the measure passed. "I assume we’re going to see the same opposition we saw last year from the oil companies," Cechovic says. "I've never heard of a polluter that likes paying their fair share of the cleanup costs but it’s time these guys pay up."

State Senator Sharon Nelson (D-34) and Representative Timm Ormsby (D-3) will be sponsoring the bills.