U.S. Water News Online
SEATTLE -- When Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire was growing up south of here in Auburn, she fished with her mom on Puget Sound. She walked along its beaches and boated its waters. But mostly, she says, she took the natural beauty that surrounded her for granted.
Now that the Puget Sound environment is at risk, the governor is taking notice in a different way.
The governor has proposed a massive $220 million effort over the next two years as a down payment on restoring and preserving the state's inland marine waters.
Gregoire, a former state Ecology Department director, promised to help make Puget Sound "fishable, diggable and swimmable" by 2020.
She called Puget Sound one of her most urgent priorities and said state, federal, local and tribal governments must join with citizens to fix it.
The governor, backed by leaders in the cleanup campaign, highlighted an ambitious plan she will include in her two-year state budget request.
Gregoire's announcement came as the Puget Sound Partnership she appointed presented its final report on what needs to be done to restore dwindling habitat and reduce pollution. The report estimates the total cost to clean up and restore Puget Sound at nearly $9 billion between now and 2020.
Gregoire said that to clean up the sound by then, the state and its citizens need to act now.
"The sound has not become sick overnight ... so we're not going to turn it around overnight," she said, adding that the initial infusion of cash from the state and the federal government will only be a down payment.
Neither Gregoire nor the partnership have identified where the billions of dollars needed would come from. However, the governor said once people accept the sound is in an environmental crisis and realize they share responsibility for the problems, they will be asked for more money.
"Some of my best childhood memories are of fishing and boating on the sound, but beneath the blue water, the fish and wildlife are sick," she said in a statement. "Many people are working hard to protect the Puget Sound, but they need more support."
Gregoire's plan includes:
Gregoire said she will ask the Legislature to form a new citizen-led panel to lead the cleanup effort and bring together all the public and private participants.
Nearly $3.5 million of the $220 million for the next two-year budget would come from the federal government.
About $8.5 million will come from the state's general operating budget. The rest will come out of local toxics accounts and earmarked environmental funds, which have their own source of money, and from the state construction budget, which is largely financed through bond sales, her office said.
Gregoire said protecting the Puget Sound must be at the top of the state agenda, but the state cannot do it alone.
The shift of power in Congress may help, as veteran U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., takes over as chairman of a key budget subcommittee.
Dicks -- also a member of the Puget Sound Partnership -- said his new role in Congress and the state's commitment to invest in the cleanup will help attract federal money.
"My goal is to make sure the federal government plays its role here," Dicks said, calling the job of cleaning up the waters where he fished as a kid "very daunting."
He said he has been assured by the leaders of the Environmental Protection Agency that the federal government is going to be actively involved, with support similar to that for cleaning up Chesapeake Bay and the Everglades.
Puget Sound's problems are well-established scientifically, linked to the millions of people who live and work on its shores. An additional 1.4 million people are expected to move to the region by 2020. Erosion from logging and other resource extraction, plus human, agricultural and industrial waste are slowly poisoning the rich ecosystem.
The report outlines the work yet to be done, but both Gregoire and Dicks emphasized that Puget Sound restoration was not on hold while the Puget Sound Partnership was meeting. Earlier this year, Gregoire set aside $42 million for the improvement of wastewater systems at state parks and to restore estuaries and salmon habitat.
Eighty percent of the sound's estuary habitat is gone, the report says. Habitat loss on land and water underscores the need to preserve what is left, and the report encourages stewardship and acquiring land from willing sellers.
"The Puget Sound is slowly slipping away from us," said Billy Frank, Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission and co-chairman of the task force with Gregoire and Bill Ruckelshaus, former EPA administrator. "We've got to work together because we can't just let it die."
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