Governor Offers Plan to Restore Puget Sound
An SOS for Puget Sound
Gov. Christine Gregoire on Monday said she’ll ask the Legislature to put a $42 million down payment on a master plan to restore the health of the Puget Sound by 2020.
“I want us to ramp it up,� she said at a Seattle press conference staged with fog-bound Elliott Bay as a backdrop.
Puget Sound might look pretty, but beneath the surface, pollution, toxic contaminants and raw sewage threaten the region’s health and economy, Gregoire said.
Her proposed spending plan is part of a budget package she will present to the 2006 Legislature. Most of the revenue to pay for the plan would be drawn from taxes generated by the state’s Model Toxics Control Act. That is Washington’s version of Superfund, which taxes hazardous substances.
Because the state’s oil refineries account for most of the revenue, this year’s collections were unexpectedly buoyed by the rise in oil prices, said Jim Cahill, the governor’s senior budget assistant.
The windfall was not anticipated, so the revenue is not being diverted from other projects, he said.
The only money specifically earmarked for the South Sound is $3.4 million to the Port of Tacoma. It would help pay for restoration work at Pier 25, where contaminated sediments along Hylebos Waterway are being capped as part of the continuing Commencement Bay Superfund cleanup.
Puget Sound’s resident orca whales are in danger of extinction and, despite 20 years of effort, the Sound’s problems are getting worse, not better, the governor said.
She declared she will not permit the dead zones that have overcome the Hood Canal to destroy other parts of the Sound.
“I am not going to allow that to happen on my watch,� Gregoire said.
Continue reading this story from the Tacoma News Tribune:
An SOS for Puget Sound
