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Changes — one area at a time
Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater have low-impact development ordinances on the books; Thurston County is likely to adopt one in 2008.
Some examples of low impact development techniques:
• More than 20 years ago, Tumwater built parking areas that absorb stormwater at Tumwater Historical Park to keep runoff out of the Deschutes River.
• When Olympia widened R.W. Johnson Boulevard last year, the bike lane was constructed with a pervious surface to soak up stormwater runoff from the road.
• The Lotus Springs medical building on Olympia's west side eliminated stormwater runoff with the use of rain gardens and a porous cement parking lot.
• The Seminar II Building at The Evergreen State College features a living roof and rain gardens.
• The Lacey Downs shopping area in Lacey uses rain gardens in the parking lot.
The Puget Sound Partnership will kick off a series of public workshops and community conversations across the Puget Sound region to engage the public in development of its cleanup action plan.
"It's important that the people who live and work on Puget Sound play a role in bringing it back to health," said David Dicks, executive director of the partnership. "These community discussions will be the first of many opportunities for everyone who has a stake in Puget Sound to tell the partnership how it should be restored."
The first round of workshops will focus on the overall status of Puget Sound health and the greatest threats it faces. In South Sound, the first public meeting is set for March 7 in Lecture Hall Building No. 3 at The Evergreen State College. The workshop is from 1 to 5 p.m. and the community conversation will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The Olympian
‘Our last, best chance' to save Puget Sound
By John Dodge | The Olympian
Ruckelshaus and Frank belong to the seven-member Leadership Council, which oversees the work of the Puget Sound Partnership. Picked by Gregoire as executive director of the Puget Sound Partnership is David Dicks, 36, an environmental attorney and son of U.S. Congressman Norm Dicks, D-Wash.
Dicks and his team of about two dozen state employees have until September 2008 to craft a cleanup action plan that spells out the roles of the federal, state and local governments, tribes, watershed groups, business and everyday citizens in pulling Puget Sound back from the ragged edge of ecological disaster.
At the same time, he and others must build public support for long-term funding for a project that starts with a price tag of about $12 billion.
"I'm hoping David is the right person," said Bill Dewey, a Taylor Shellfish official and one of two business representatives on the partnership's 27-member Ecosystem Coordination Board, which is an advisory group. "He's got a lot on his plate."
How this time is different
So how does the Puget Sound Partnership differ from the past two state agencies that tried, but failed, to help Puget Sound recover?
• The partnership has a larger scope of work, everything from salmon recovery to balancing water supplies for people and wildlife.
• While not a regulatory agency, the partnership does have authority to push the Puget Sound cleanup by assigning tasks, setting goals and holding the public sector accountable through the likes of report cards and recommendations to withhold state grant money, if public agencies don't perform.
Dicks likens the role of the partnership to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
"Not having regulatory authority is a huge blessing for us," Dicks said. "It allows us to stand above it all with a broader mission."
Environmental groups had pushed for a partnership armed with more enforcement clout when it was formed by the Legislature in 2007, but lost that political battle.
• The work of the partnership will be guided by a nine-member science panel, which is supposed to make sure science, not politics, drives what are bound to be tough decisions.
"I see us as sort of the conscience of the action plan to ensure it is credible and held to a high standard," said Tim Quinn, a science panel member and chief scientist in the state Department of Fish and Wildlife habitat program.
Ideas on how best to raise new money for Puget Sound cleanup efforts probably won't be on the table for political and public debate for another year or two, Ruckelshaus said.
"We still need to build public support for Puget Sound before making the case for funding," Ruckelshaus said.
Fletcher, who represents environmental interests on the Ecosystem Coordination Board, said the success or failure by the partnership will depend in large part on its ability to engineer changes in the way the region regulates land use and pollution.
"The biggest risk is that the partnership will fall victim to all the vested interests that benefit from the status quo," she said.
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