The Save Lake Tapps Coalition disbanded in September 2007, after 8 year of community service.  The effort of this coalition is now focused in the Lake Tapps Community Council under a new charter.  All funds remaining in the SLTC account were transferred to the Lake Tapps Community Council.  This website is maintained by a the past secretary of the former Save Lake Tapps Coalition as a method of community education and awareness.  The Save Lake Tapps Coalition was formed on March 8, 1999 in response to an announcement in the media advising that Lake Tapps may be drained as a result of a possible involuntary abandonment of the White River Hydroelectric Project by Puget Sound Energy.  The Coalition was a non-profit community organization consisting of motivated, concerned people who live, use, or own property around our beloved Lake Tapps.   If you have web content concerning the interest of the lake, please forward to: valdez4726@comcast.net

Lake Tapps Community Council General Information Hotline - a community service number:   (253) 891-5460

Police Related Problems on the Lake?  

If Emergency Call:  911

If Non-Emergency Call:  (253) 798-4721 Option '1'

To leave a message on the Pierce County Sheriff Boating Hotline Call:  (253) 798-3300

Lake Tapps salmon fans should switch to poultry

Glenn Dickson; Sumner;

I don't eat salmon, mainly because I don't like fish. But recently I've started telling people that I don't eat salmon because I'm so concerned about them. Let's face it; eating fish is what the problem of Lake Tapps (TNT, 10-23) is all about. I have a hard time believing that we eat this endangered species.

We talk about draining lakes and bankrupting people (do you think anyone is going to live on Mudflat Tapps?), but we continue to eat the very thing we're trying to save.

Thank God the bald eagle isn't good eating. If it were, there would be people out there fixing up its habitat while a bunch of others were serving the birds at weddings. I think any plan that doesn't start with a ban on eating what you are trying to save is really counterproductive.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is now saying that diverting water into Lake Tapps affects the fish too much. Where is the mention of the fishing boats hauling them out of the water before they even reach the river? Now I'm no marine biologist, but doesn't it make sense that if we had thousands (millions?) more fish making it back to the river to spawn, we might have less of a problem? If you are really interested in saving salmon or Lake Tapps, eat chicken.

GLENN DICKSON

Sumner

(Published 12:30AM, November 6th, 2002)

 

PSE shouldn't bear brunt of fish-recovery efforts

Craig Hansen; Enumclaw;

Re: "Study jeopardizes future of Lake Tapps" (TNT, 10-24).

The main driving force behind the National Marine Fisheries Service biological opinion seems to be the endangered species listing for chinook and other salmon species in the White River. It is a good thing to protect the fish, although too little, too late comes to mind.

It seems Puget Sound Energy is being forced to bear the brunt of efforts to recover the fish population when there are other factors and entities involved in its decline. There was a large drop in returning fish after the Mud Mountain Dam was built by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. A few years later the fish trap at Buckley was built, but fish returns didn't bounce back.

There is a pipeline crossing that is an identified hazard to fish, but nothing has been done to rectify the problem. There is a sport fishing season on the river, which was closed to fishing for many years prior to the endangered species listing. It's odd to keep the river open for fishing now.

I won't mention the gillnets downstream of the White River, even though there was also a marked drop in fish returns starting in the mid-1970s when they showed up.

The article noted the pollution from wastewater treatment plants. I'm sure non-point pollution from dairies, golf courses and residential septic systems have their impacts as well.

Is it fair to place so heavy a burden on PSE alone, just because it's easiest to do so? I sure don't think so.

CRAIG HANSEN

Enumclaw

(Published 12:30AM, October 28th, 2002)


 

Save Lake Tapps Coalition
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