2020 vision to clean up Puget Sound unveiled

Partnership shares environmental objectives for next 12 years

By John Dodge | The Olympian • Published November 07, 2008

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A Puget Sound draft cleanup plan wrapped in a sense of urgency and filled with costly projects to save habitat and halt pollution was released for public review Thursday by the Puget Sound Partnership. The plan, geared toward achieving a healthy Puget Sound by 2020, would:

How to get involved

The draft Puget Sound action agenda is at www.psp.wa.gov, along with an online "open house" forum for public comment through Nov. 20.

A public meeting to accept comment on the cleanup plan is set for 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Embassy Suites Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Triple Crown Ballroom, 15920 W. Valley Highway, Seattle.

What's next

The final report will be delivered to the state Legislature on Dec. 1.

Plan highlights

Some highlights from the Puget Sound draft cleanup plan released Thursday by the Puget Sound Partnership:

• More than 52 million pounds of toxic chemicals flow into Puget Sound each year from stormwater runoff and pipe discharges from wastewater treatment plants and industry.

• In the past 150 years, the population of the Puget Sound region has grown from 50,000 to 4 million. It's expected to grow by an additional 1.4 million in the next 15 years.

• About 75 percent of the saltwater marsh habitat in Puget Sound has been diked and drained since white settlers arrived.

• The state spends about $571 million every two years on Puget Sound protection. The 2009 state Legislature will be asked to up the ante an additional $200 million to $300 million.

• Dedicated funding in the form of a new tax or other type of fee won't be proposed unless or until public support for Puget Sound cleanup can be documented.

• One of the goals of the plan for a healthy Puget Sound by 2020 includes a net increase of 10,000 acres of commercial shellfish growing area currently closed because of bacterial contamination. About 30,000 acres are currently off-limits to harvest because of pollution.

• Drastically reduce the 150,000 pounds of toxic chemicals that enter Puget Sound each day through stormwater runoff and industrial discharge pipes, a volume equal to an Exxon Valdez-size oil spill every two years. "It's a large and frightening number, and the vast majority of it is petroleum products from our transportation system," Josh Baldi of the state Department of Ecology said.

• Finance the rapid acquisition of prime habitat in Puget Sound and continue to repair the degraded shorelines, wetlands and estuaries that are causing the ecosystem to unravel, sending more than 40 major species into decline.

A recent 10 percent drop in the Puget Sound orca population thought to be tied to toxic pollution and lack of salmon for them to eat points to the urgent need to act, Partnership executive director David Dicks said.

"Obviously, we can't do everything in one fell swoop," he said. "But we don't have time to wait around."

The Partnership's blueprint for a healthier Puget Sound is the third such effort in the past 25 years, a fact that has some veterans of Puget Sound cleanup efforts cautious about results.

"The most important things left to do is figure out how to fund it, determine who does what and then hold people accountable," said Kathy Fletcher, executive director of the conservation group People for Puget Sound and a leader in Puget Sound cleanup efforts since the mid-1980s. "Until we get to that, the action agenda is just words."

Dicks said the plan does set priorities and holds participants accountable, and he expects to build on political momentum when the Puget Sound Partnership asks the state Legislature for $200 million to $300 million in new Puget Sound money in the 2009-11 budget.

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