Governor Gregoire Announces Puget Sound Partnership to Open Office in Urban Waters Building

For Immediate Release: October 4, 2007

Office will share space with local, academic and private Puget Sound restoration efforts

OLYMPIA � Governor Chris Gregoire today announced that the Puget Sound Partnership will open an office in the City of Tacoma�s Urban Waters marine research center on Thea Foss Waterway. The satellite office will operate in close proximity to Tacoma�s environmental services division labs and UW-Tacoma research labs.

�Today is another exciting milestone for Puget Sound clean up,� said Governor Gregoire. �The Puget Sound Partnership office in the Urban Waters Center is a perfect example of what I call the �Washington Way.� We are bringing together the people who know how to clean up one of our state�s most precious resources.�

Locating Puget Sound Partnership facilities alongside local, academic and private Puget Sound restoration efforts will encourage collaboration and lead to intellectual and technological marine research developments. The work to restore the Thea Foss Waterway and the economic opportunity that has resulted from that clean up effort is an example that the Puget Sound Partnership wants to replicate throughout the region.

�I want to thank the Governor for making this happen. Locating on the Thea Foss Waterway, a site of one of the nations best models for marine restoration and clean up, is incredibly exciting and inspirational.� said David Dicks, Executive Director of the Puget Sound Partnership. �We look forward to working in partnership with the City of Tacoma, Peirce County and the UW Tacoma branch.�

The office and laboratory will be located on the east side of the Thea Foss Waterway. When completed in June 2009 Urban Waters will include a 100-foot dock to allow for water-monitoring vessel research. The City of Tacoma is pursuing the highest level of LEED certification for the facility.

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