Several years ago, State Rep. Bill Eickmeyer (D-Belfair) was one of the first lawmakers to warn of the danger threatening Hood Canal. Now he will lead a House of Representatives select committee in working to write legislative strategies for Canal recovery.
   Eickmeyer has been named to chair the Select Committee on Hood Canal — a panel charged with finding ways to prevent the resource from becoming a dead zone.
   Re-elected in November to a fourth term in the Legislature, Eickmeyer said, “The lack of dissolved oxygen in Hood Canal threatens to turn these beautiful waters into a Dead Sea. All species in the Canal, even those that require only a small level of dissolved oxygen, are threatened with irrecoverable extinction.”
   In working to recapture the health of the canal, he added, “We must look at the complex interrelationship between its species and chemistries. We’ve got to establish healthy guidelines for management and protection of the Canal.”
   The other members of Eickmeyer’s Select Committee on Hood Canal will be named later.
   Eickmeyer said the committee will review the management of the Hood Canal’s water-quality, as well as management of its fisheries and shellfish industries. The panel will also examine issues involving policies for recreation, storm water, sewage systems, septic tanks, pollutants, forestry, and agriculture, as well as focus on getting local, regional, state, and tribal governments to work together toward Hood Canal recovery.
   Earlier this year, the 35th Legislative District lawmaker garnered capital-budget funding for the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group to help it more actively research the oxygen problem.