Washington’s Ecology Director leaves to become Governor Gregoire’s chief of staff.
The Peninsula Daily News is reporting that Jay Manning, the Director of Washington’s Department of Ecology for the past four years, is leaving the agency to become chief of staff for Governor Chris Gregoire. Manning, who served as an assistant state attorney general under Gregoire when the Governor was the state’s Attorney General, replaces
Cindy Zehnder who, in August, announced she was stepping down.
Although Manning brought strong environmental credentials to Ecology, the agency has endured a number of controversies on his watch, including the embarrassments associated with the regulatory mis-fires on the Spokane River dissolved oxygen cleanup plan. The apex of the controversy came in August of 2007 when Drea Traeumer, Ecology’s lead scientist on the project, resigned rather than be forced to sign her name to a plan that she believed was scientifically indefensible. Traeumer was vindicated 13 months later when the Environmental Protection Agency agreed with one of her main criticisms and sent the plan back to Ecology for a do over.
No word, as yet, on Manning’s replacement.
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