Published February 18, 2008
John Dodge
The Olympian
All eyes are on the Puget Sound Partnership, the new state agency viewed by many as the last chance for saving Puget Sound.
• Part 1: Toxic runoff silent killer
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Formed by the 2007 Legislature, the partnership grew out of Gov. Chris Gregoire's call in December 2005 for action to cure what ails Puget Sound by 2020.
The challenge is a daunting one. The tasks include:
• Bringing about 40 threatened species — from the mighty orca to the iconic chinook salmon — back from the brink of extinction by restoring water quality and habitat.
• Convincing the public that a healthy Puget Sound is vital to a healthy Puget Sound basin economy.
• Revamping land use patterns and transportation to curb stormwater runoff from the 4 million people already living in the region, and the 1.4 million headed here in the next 15 years.
• Sustaining the cleanup and protection effort with dedicated funding measured in the billions of dollars.
"This is our last, best chance for saving Puget Sound," predicted Kathy Fletcher, executive director of the conservation group People for Puget Sound. "We need to stop destroying habitat and face up to the pollution problems, or it's all just talk."
Fletcher is no stranger to the challenge. She served as the executive director of the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority, the first state agency, formed in 1985, to tackle Puget Sound pollution problems. Several years later, it was gutted by partisan politics and big business and replaced with the Puget Sound Action Team, which offered advice to state agencies and little else.
Now comes the partnership, led by such regional movers and shakers as Bill Ruckelshaus, a prominent Republican and first director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Billy Frank Jr., the Nisqually tribal member and revered Native American leader who speaks for the salmon. "This is our best chance to save Puget Sound," Ruckelshaus said. "But we won't be successful unless everybody who lives in the Puget Sound region sees it as their special place."
Ruckelshaus and Frank belong to the seven-member Leadership Council, which oversees the work of the Puget Sound Partnership. Picked by Gregoire as executive director of the Puget Sound Partnership is David Dicks, 36, an environmental attorney and son of U.S. Congressman Norm Dicks, D-Wash.
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Dicks and his team of about two dozen state employees have until September 2008 to craft a cleanup action plan that spells out the roles of the federal, state and local governments, tribes, watershed groups, business and everyday citizens in pulling Puget Sound back from the ragged edge of ecological disaster.
At the same time, he and others must build public support for long-term funding for a project that starts with a price tag of about $12 billion.
"I'm hoping David is the right person," said Bill Dewey, a Taylor Shellfish official and one of two business representatives on the partnership's 27-member Ecosystem Coordination Board, which is an advisory group. "He's got a lot on his plate."
How this time is different
So how does the Puget Sound Partnership differ from the past two state agencies that tried, but failed, to help Puget Sound recover?
• The partnership has a larger scope of work, everything from salmon recovery to balancing water supplies for people and wildlife.
• While not a regulatory agency, the partnership does have authority to push the Puget Sound cleanup by assigning tasks, setting goals and holding the public sector accountable through the likes of report cards and recommendations to withhold state grant money, if public agencies don't perform.
Dicks likens the role of the partnership to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
"Not having regulatory authority is a huge blessing for us," Dicks said. "It allows us to stand above it all with a broader mission."
Environmental groups had pushed for a partnership armed with more enforcement clout when it was formed by the Legislature in 2007, but lost that political battle.
• The work of the partnership will be guided by a nine-member science panel, which is supposed to make sure science, not politics, drives what are bound to be tough decisions.
"I see us as sort of the conscience of the action plan to ensure it is credible and held to a high standard," said Tim Quinn, a science panel member and chief scientist in the state Department of Fish and Wildlife habitat program.
Ideas on how best to raise new money for Puget Sound cleanup efforts probably won't be on the table for political and public debate for another year or two, Ruckelshaus said.
"We still need to build public support for Puget Sound before making the case for funding," Ruckelshaus said.
Fletcher, who represents environmental interests on the Ecosystem Coordination Board, said the success or failure by the partnership will depend in large part on its ability to engineer changes in the way the region regulates land use and pollution.
"The biggest risk is that the partnership will fall victim to all the vested interests that benefit from the status quo," she said.