Center For Environmental Law & Policy

Programs: Washington water resource protection project: through celp's washington water resource protection project, we advocate for sustainable management of washington state's rivers and drinking water aquifers. Our policy, legal and science staff and volunteers monitor and advocate with the department of ecology water resources program to ensure the agency promotes the public interest when issuing water rights for private out-of-stream use, and properly and sustainably manages instream and groundwater resources for public benefit.

modernizing the columbia river treaty: celp brought together environmental groups and columbia river tribes to make restoring the columbia river's ecosystem a core purpose of an updated treaty, equal to power production and flood control. This alliance successfully influenced the army corps of engineers and the bonneville power administration to officially recommend that the state department reform the treaty to include the ecosystem: a major paradigm shift.

protecting washington's freshwater ecosystems and fish habitat in a changing climate: this project works to protect the freshwater ecosystems and fish habitat in washington state by getting the department of ecology and department of fish and wildlife to enact new policies to ensure washington's rivers and streams maintain healthy, sustainable stream flows as snow packs decline and the pressure increases to take more water out of our streams for other uses. Our overall goal is to get washington to adopt and implement a sustainable water management that protects our freshwater ecosystems as the climate warms.