Making Changes Families Can Count On: Governor Gregoire Invests to Protect and Restore Puget Sound

For Immediate Release: December 13, 2006

Puget Sound Partnership delivers their final report as Governor Gregoire announces her recommendations for clean up

SEATTLE � Governor Chris Gregoire today at the edge of Puget Sound in Seattle announced she will invest to expand the intensity and scale of efforts to restore the health of Puget Sound. She also received the final report from the Puget Sound Partnership, a panel of Washingtonians she tasked to study clean-up efforts across the country and make recommendations about further clean-up measures.

�Cleaning and protecting Puget Sound must be at the top of our state environmental agenda,� said Governor Gregoire. �But I know from experience that state government can�t do it alone.�

For thousands of years, people have enjoyed the bounty and beauty of Puget Sound. However, the fish and wildlife, such as orca whales, rockfish, marine birds and salmon that were once abundant are now sharply declining. Governor Gregoire is determined to take action to save the Sound for future generations.

�Some of my best memories are of fishing and boating on the Sound, but beneath its blue waters, the Sound is sick,� said Governor Gregoire. �Many people are working hard to protect Puget Sound, but they need more support. I will strengthen policies and target investments to help restore fish and wildlife that are essential to the Sound and to the strength of our economy and protect habitat that is disappearing to growth and development.�

Governor Gregoire�s plan for Puget Sound will:

• Protect essential habitat so that plants, salmon and other wildlife can return to the Sound and start to rebuild our Puget Sound fish populations;
  
• Cleanup up toxins and prevent further pollution so toxins do not continue to find their way into people and fish;
  
• Reduce contaminated storm water runoff to keep pollution from spreading and leaking into the soil and Sound;
  
• Cleanup areas with septic pollution so shellfish beds that have been closed due to failing septic systems can reopen; and
  
• Continue to promote grassroots partnerships that have worked to cleanup and educate so that support for protecting Puget Sound comes from the ground up.

�The members of the Puget Sound Partnership met my challenge to be action-oriented and to recommend ways that we can ensure that everyone is involved in cleaning up one of our national treasures,� said Governor Gregoire. �Puget Sound did not become sick overnight and the Partnership�s efforts recognize that we have to have an action plan with benchmarks and timelines so that we can stay on track to meet our goal of cleaning up the Sound by 2020.�

Governor Gregoire in 2006 accelerated the clean up of pollution in the Sound from leaking septic systems and contaminated storm water. She designated $42 million to restore estuaries and salmon habitat and improve the wastewater systems at state parks.

At that time, she established and signed on to chair the Puget Sound Partnership, made up of Washingtonians including: Salmon Recovery Funding Board Chair William Ruckelshaus; U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks; Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission Chairman Billy Frank, Jr.; Colin Moseley, President, Green Diamond Company and Chairman, Simpson Resource Company; King County Executive Ron Sims; University of Washington President Mark Emmert, Ph.D.; Western Washington Agricultural Association Executive Director Mike Shelby; Taylor Shellfish Farms Vice President Bill Taylor; and People for Puget Sound Executive Director Kathy Fletcher.

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