TIME FOR CITIZENS TO GET INVOLVED

It was in the early 1920’s that local shellfish growers noticed pollution in Puget Sound. Since then, there have been several sporadic efforts at the state and federal level to control pollution. In 2005, Governor Chris Gregoire pledged to restore Puget Sound to a clean and healthy condition by 2020. Funding to start off this initiative was approved by the legislature in April 2006. In 2007, the legislature created the Puget Sound Partnership to bring new energy to the task of restoring the Sound to health by 2020.

The Puget Sound Partnership
The Puget Sound Partnership is a state agency responsible for developing and “Action Agenda” by December 1, 2008 that will put the Sound on the path to health by 2020. The Partnership will also compile the available science and information about the state of the Sound, coordinate the efforts that are currently being made by various organizations, coordinate available resources and finally, hold these implementers of the Action Agenda accountable for money spent and for results for the Sound. The Partnership, in turn, will be answerable to the Governor, legislature, and citizens and is ultimately accountable, by law, for achieving the goal of a healthy Puget Sound by 2020.

Public Participation
The single most crucial element of this endeavor is public participation. With the aim of making the development of the Agenda a truly participative and transparent process, and also to gather local information about the state of the Sound in the respective Action Areas, the Partnership held a series of public workshops in March 2008. Next will come all-important public meetings later in 2008 on the issues, stormwater pollution, oil spills, habitat destruction, endangered species, dead zones, lax enforcement, lack of funding and accountability – all the woes of the Sound have solutions, and the next round of meetings will give citizens a chance to tell the Partnership how to fix these and other problems in the Action Agenda.

Puget Sound Environmental Caucus
In 2006, People For Puget Sound initiated the formation of Puget Sound Environmental Caucus, a small loosely knit coalition, to work on pushing the Governors Puget Sound Initiative’s through the 2007 legislative session.  As a result of the Caucus’s collective efforts, political and grassroots support, the Initiative passed and the Puget Sound Partnership was formed in May of 2007.

Now, the Puget Sound Environmental Caucus, has grown to include 44 organizations throughout the Sound to provide the environmental community a strong collective venue to influence the Partnership’s 2020 Action Agenda. We have the following purposes:
        (1) To use our collective resources and voice to maximize our influence on decisions by the Puget Sound Partnership, other governmental agencies and legislative bodies
        (2) To coordinate and seek consensus positions on matters where the interests of Caucus groups are not potentially in conflict in order to speak with one voice

The Caucus has the following committees to increase its effectiveness and efficiency:  Steering Committee; Outreach and Communications Committee; and Issue Committees.

The Issue Committees will develop and advocate for policies and actions to address the resource objectives spelled out in the legislation: habitat/land use, human health, human well-being, species/biodiversity protection and recovery, water quality, and water quantity. Development of the Action Agenda is the focus of the Issue Committees over the next eight months. Each Issue Committee has provided review and critique of the Partnership’s Topic Forum white page. One-page summaries are available for review.

People For Puget Sound
People for Puget Sound is working to ensure this public participation in the creation of the Action Agenda by disseminating information about issues and meetings, generating support and atendance, and inviting feedback. Why?

"Citizens must do more than accept the plan; they must become knowledgeable, enthusiastic advocates for Puget Sound and be willing to practice what the plan preaches. The future of the Sound depends upon a massive effort to change the attitudes and habits of everyone who lives in the Puget Sound basin." [Editorial in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, 1986.]

This vividly sums up the reasons for inviting public participation in the creation of the Action Agenda. This quote refers to the earlier plan proposed in 1986, and we must take it to heart now, 22 years later. In the words of Kathy Fletcher, Executive Director of People For Puget Sound and member of the Partnership’s Ecosystem Coordination Board, this is our ‘last, best, chance to save the Sound ’.

To Help Rescue Puget Sound
Please contact Rein Attemann or use the handy activist sign up form to be learn more about opportunities to be an advocate for the Sound.

You can also tell us what you think needs to be done to save our Sound by using the handy form and we will pass that on to the Partnership. Need some ideas? See our "Action Agenda."

Information LInks:

Schedule of Partnership Topic Forums.

Puget Sound Partnership.

"Saving the Puget Sound," The Olympian.