Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - February 06, 2008)

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By Ms. CANTWELL (for herself and Mrs. MURRAY):

S. 2601. A bill to require the Secretary of Agriculture to convey to King and Kittitas Counties Fire District No. 51 a certain parcel of real property for use as a site for a new Snoqualmie Pass fire and rescue station; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Snoqualmie Pass Land Conveyance Act, together with Senator Murray. This bill would transfer an acre and a half of Forest Service land to the King and Kittitas Counties Fire District No. 51, also known as Snoqualmie Pass Fire and Rescue. This land would be conveyed at no cost, but would have to be used by the Fire District specifically for the construction of a new fire station or it would revert back to the Federal Government.

Snoqualmie Pass Fire and Rescue serves a portion of two counties on both sides of the Cascade Mountains along Interstate 90, a community of 350 full-time residents that peaks to 1,500 during the ski season. Additionally, the ski area estimates 20,000 patrons on a busy weekend, and the Department of Transportation estimates that up to 60,000 vehicles travel through the fire district on a busy day making it the busiest mountain highway in the country.

This area is also the major transportation corridor for goods and services between eastern and western Washington. The all-volunteer Fire Department averages over 300 calls a year with about a 10 percent annual increase in call volumes, which is more than triple the amount of calls a typical all-volunteer fire department would respond to in a year. Mr. Presdient, 84
percent of those incidents are for non-tax paying residents. Consequently, the Fire Department has the characteristics of a large city with the limited resources of a small community.

In recent years, this area has been the scene of major winter snowstorms, multi-vehicle accidents, and even avalanches. The Fire District is often the first responder to incidents in the area, which is prone to rock slides and avalanches and it is not uncommon for this community to be isolated for hours or even days at a time. Several thousand people can be stranded at the Pass during those periods when the Pass is closed and while the Department of Transportation works quickly to get the roads back open, it can be very taxing on local resources.

For decades, the Fire District has been leasing its current site from the Forest Service. They operate out of an aging building that was not designed to be a fire station. Through their hard work and dedication, they have served their community ably despite this building's many shortcomings. However, with traffic on the rise and the need for emergency services in the area growing, the Fire District needs to move to a true fire station.

The Fire District has identified a nearby site that would better serve the public safety needs at the Pass. This location would provide easy access to the interstate in either direction, reducing emergency response times. The parcel is on Forest Service property, immediately adjacent to a freeway interchange, between a frontage road and the interstate itself. The parcel was formerly a disposal site during construction of the freeway and is now a gravel lot.

I recognize that the Forest Service does not normally support conveyances of land free of charge. However, I believe an exception should be made in this particular circumstance because of the important public service provided by the Fire District, the heavy traffic and emergency calls created by nonresidents in the area, the distance of Snoqualmie Pass from other communities with emergency services, and because of the high amount of federal land ownership in the area, which severely limits the local tax base. In fact, the Forest Service has acquired 20,000 acres in King and Kittitas counties at a cost of more than $52 million over just the last 10 years.

Passage of this legislation would not guarantee that a new station would be built. The Fire District would have to work hard to gather the financing that would be required from State and local sources, as well as any applicable Federal grants or loans. However, the conveyance of this site at no cost would help this Fire District hold down the overall cost of this project.

I am confident this can be done with little or no impact to the environment. Over the last year, following the introduction of this legislation in the House of Representatives, H.R. 1285, there were ongoing discussions in Washington State to address some lingering issues related to this conveyance. I am pleased those discussions reached resolution. I am also pleased that discussions with my staff, Senator Murray's staff, and staff of Energy and Natural Resources Committee led to an amendment to H.R. 1285 before it passed the House of Representatives that would better tailor the conveyance to both the environmental and the emergency response needs at the Pass by reducing the amount of land to be conveyed from 3 acres to 1.5 acres.

It is my understanding that there are offers of support to construct a new fire station from state and local officials, and to mitigate any effects of construction, and I support those efforts. To offset any potential impacts from construction of a new fire station and to improve wildlife connectivity at the pass, I encourage the Forest Service to work in collaboration with state and local officials, the Cascade Land Conservancy, Snoqualmie Fire District, Sierra Club, and Conservation Northwest to identify opportunities for off-site habitat acquisition.

I appreciate the efforts of Senator Murray and my colleagues on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee to review this issue and bring this bill forward. I look forward to continuing to work with the community at the Pass and my colleagues to improve public safety in the area.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

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