EDMONDS
Gov. Christine Gregoire stopped in Edmonds Thursday, July 24, part of a two-day boat tour as she campaigns for re-election and spreads the message about her plans to restore the Puget Sound.
“We look out here and it looks drop-dead gorgeous,” she told about 40 supporters during a warm, sunny afternoon on the grass behind the South County Senior Center. “The problem is, below that surface is a very troubled sound.”
On hand to offer support were some of the region’s top political leaders, including Snohomish County Councilman Mike Cooper, state Sen. Paull Shin, D-Edmonds, and Edmonds City Councilman D.J. Wilson.
Gregoire, who’s being challenged by former state legislator Dino Rossi, said she was shocked when she took office that “so little had been” done to protect the Sound.
“We’ve got sewer going into places around Hood Canal because a lot of people are on septic systems,” she said, adding that she remembers when she was head of the state’s Department of Ecology thinking that industry was the main cause of pollution. Since then, she said, it’s become apparent that “40 percent of the problem in Puget Sound is storm water.”
She said that though an estimated 40 percent of pollution in the Sound is from stormwater runoff, only about 10 percent of the funds spent to address contamination is aimed at that.
“Now we know it’s us,” she said. “If we want to clean up the Puget Sound, it’s about four million people who say ‘we’re going to clean up Puget Sound.”
Cooper, himself a former state legislator, has some background in Puget Sound cleanup efforts. While in the legislature, he chaired a task force that responded to a major oil spill in 2003. A priority of that task force was to make sure that oil-carrying cargo ships were intercepted before they caused any harm to the Sound.
“We’re doing a really good job but it’s because of Gov. Gregoire’s leadership that the state Legislature funded a full-time rescue response tug boat to make sure there’s a vessel there that can capture them…” he said. “Protecting this water is not only critical to the habitat that we enjoy but also to…our economy.”
Gregoire’s Puget Sound cleanup push is part of an effort called The Puget Sound Partnership, which is overseen by former EPA director William Rickleshaus.
She said the idea for the partnership began over lunch with U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks. So far, it’s been funded with about $20 million, which is a far cry from the hundreds of millions that will be necessary, Gregoire said.
“I”ve set it in motion,” she said. “I can’t get it all done in four years, maybe not even eight…ladies and gentlemen, give me another four years, we’ll make sure we get it done for Washington.”
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