Seattlepi.com - The Obama Administration Steps Up to the Plate on Cleaning Up Puget Sound

News Article

By Joel Connelly

The Obama administration has given resources and a long-sought priority to cleaning up Puget Sound, putting Washington's inland sea and rivers on equal footing with Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes as a national water priority.

It is creating a federal Puget Sound Task Force and releasing a Memorandum of Understanding directing federal agencies to get about restoration.

The feds, the State of Washington and Puget Sound tribal governments are investing $248 million over five years to improve health of estuaries. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is contributing $124 million with an equal commitment from the state.

"Too often, conversations in Washington, D.C., on restoring America's waterways start with the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes: Today, we are pushing our nation's conservation priorities westward and bringing attention to Puget Sound, the iconic estuary that is part of our national identity and the heart of the Pacific Northwest," said U.S. Rep. Denny Heck, D-Wash.

"With this announcement, we are reaffirming that Puget Sound recovery will be a central part of our federal government's conservation priorities moving forward."

The White House Council on Environmental Quality waxed eloquent about the Sound's "stunning natural beauty" and "critical habitat", with CEQ boss Christy Goldfuss saying that a healthy Puget Sound "serves as the cornerstone of the region's high quality of life."

The CEQ even discovered Billy Frank, Jr., the famed Native American fishing rights activist, saying the new task force will be "formally incorporating Tribal treaty rights into the development of a federal action plan."

The beauty of Puget Sound in all seasons is deceptive given all its problems. Storm water runoff carries pollutants into the Sound, water temperatures are too high in the "fish hook" section of Hood Canal, and such river systems as the Skagit have experienced disappearance of estuary habitat for young salmon.

"Puget Sound is central to our region's identity, history and culture," said Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash. "In order to keep it healthy for future generations, the time for action is now."

The Puget Sound watershed has seen some major improvements.

The reborn estuary in the Billy Frank, Jr., Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge provides salt water habitat for young salmon. The Duwamish River in Seattle is being cleansed of decades of industrial pollutants, the cleanup spurred by neighborhood activists and the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps.

The waters of Bellingham Bay and Everett's Port Gardner Bay used to be filled with pulp mill effluent, choking off oxygen and creating waters the color of tobacco spit. They're much cleaner now, with sea life returning.

Back in the 1970's, the EPA required cities to install secondary sewage treatment. No longer did mothers in Bellingham's Fairhaven neighborhood fret over what to do when offspring proudly brought home buckets of clams dug near the city's sewage outfall.

But major challenges remain.

The Obama administration is walking its talk on one river, assuming Congress goes along. The Army Corps of Engineers will improve fish passage at Mud Mountain Dam on the White River, with an initial $23 million included in Obama's FY2017 budget to begin construction. The project will cost over $100 million.

Two Washington lawmakers, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and longtime (1976-2012) Rep. Norm Dicks, have spent decades -- and used Appropriations Committee seats in Congress -- trying to put Puget Sound on an equal scale with Chesapeake and the Great Lakes.

Murray pledged to go after the dollars to make the administration's plan work. And Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., added that restoration will rebound on many fronts, "protecting everything from salmon and orca habitat, to tourism, to our precious environment and our regional economy."

"Today's announcements mark an important step on the path to restoring the health of Puget Sound, the recovery of our salmon species and fulfilling our nation's commitment to Washington's tribes," said Gov. Jay Inslee

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