Wash. agency releases Puget Sound cleanup proposal

SEATTLE - The Washington state agency charged with cleaning up Puget Sound released an ambitious list of fix-its Thursday that includes buying up critical land, requiring conditional use permits for bulkheads and docks and setting up no-discharge zones for vessel sewage.

The Puget Sound Partnership's draft action agenda outlines steps the state should take to meet the goal of restoring and protecting the sound by 2020.

David Dicks, the agency's executive director, said the total bill for improvements won't be known until the draft is adopted later this month and presented to lawmakers by Dec. 1.

But it's estimated to be a multibillion-dollar effort.

How to pay for the improvements will be the most challenging task, given the state's projected $3.2 billion budget deficit.

Dicks said the agency recognizes the current tough economic climate and isn't proposing new taxes and fees. It plans to ask for $200 million to $300 million in the state's 2009-11 biennium budget.

Gov. Chris Gregoire and lawmakers created the agency last year to assess the health of the sound and come up with ways to clean and restore it.

Decades of effort to restore the environmental health of Puget Sound haven't been very successful.

Two state Department of Ecology reports released Thursday in conjunction with the plan say that surface runoff is the leading source of toxic pollutants in the sound.

The reports blame people's everyday activities — not industrial pollution or municipal wastewater discharges — as the main source of the 52 million pounds of toxic chemicals, such oil, PCBs and heavy metals, that end up in the sound each year.

"We want a healthy robust ecosystem with a thriving economy," Dicks said.

The draft agenda for cleaning Washington's inland marine waters and the surrounding land includes proposals to preserve existing farm lands, encourage more wilderness designation, clean the bays at Port Angeles and Bellingham, and educate people about pharmaceuticals that end up in the sound.

Some of the ideas have been tossed around for years, such as permanently funding a rescue tug at Neah Bay to respond to oil spills.

The more ambitious proposals include amending shoreline management rules to require conditional use permits for bulkheads and docks in residential developments, and changing water laws to protect fish and habitat.

Among the more immediate fixes, the agency plans use one-fourth of its $12 million in federal money it already has secured to finish removing dikes and restoring 762 acres of the Nisqually River Estuary, between Tacoma and Olympia. It also wants to find state money to speed up the removal of two dams on the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula to allow fish passage.

The agency will develop a list of 25 priority projects and refine its plan after taking public comments this month, Dicks said.

Kathy Fletcher, executive director of People for the Puget Sound, said she hasn't reviewed the full draft yet but is most interested in how the agency expects to get all the work done.

"We know we need to control storm water, stop destroying habitat, restore dams, get toxics out of waters," she said. "What's been impeding progress over the years is lack of funding and accountability. ... What we're looking for is a funding plan, who is responsible for what and by when."

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.