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What’s Best for the Sound?
2/25/08-Kathy reflects on the question: What are the most important things we can do for Puget Sound?
2/25/08
As chance would have it, I’ve been involved in a number of conversations and meetings recently where the topic at hand is pretty much the same—what are the most important things we can do for Puget Sound?
It’s hard to avoid developing a “laundry list” as the answer. The truth of the matter is that there is no silver bullet. We could do everything right to manage run-off, yet a catastrophic oil spill could be curtains for the Sound’s health. We could handle all of our human sewage perfectly, and kill the Sound with toxic chemicals. We could clean up and prevent all the pollution in the Sound, yet make it nearly devoid of life by filling the wetlands, bulkheading the shorelines, and stripping away the natural vegetation along the shore.
Rather than searching for the silver bullet, or on the other hand thinking of every single thing that needs to be done or avoided, maybe a better idea is to approach protecting and restoring the Sound’s health as we would raising a child.
As parents, we don’t look for just the one or two most important things we need to do for our kids. We know there are certain basic necessities and we do our best to provide them. Nor do we try to create an exhaustive list of every single thing we must do or avoid to bring our child safely into adulthood. We do know that along the way there will be thousands of decisions to make, and we make them by considering—what’s best for my kid? Will this help or hurt?
What if land use decisions were put through that test—what’s best for the Sound? Or transportation investments? Or the use of chemicals? Or sand and gravel export docks?
OK, I know some of you are saying, but Puget Sound can’t be the most important part of every decision. Yeah, I know. But if we aren’t willing to do what’s best for the Sound, we should look critically at the things we are putting ahead of a healthy Sound, and ask if that’s really what we want.
Is an industrial dock on an undeveloped shoreline, poking out into waters frequented by endangered whales, more important than doing what’s best for the Sound?
Is another new big box shopping mall, with acres of impervious rooftops and parking lots, more important than doing what’s best for the Sound?
Is a weed-free, bug-free, germ-free, odor-free environment more important than the Sound?
Think about it.