Earth Day: Duwamish Clean-up Site (As Written)

April 22, 2006

Governor Gregoire: Happy Earth Day!

I�m delighted to join with Mayor Nickels, Secretary Onley, Jack Dunnigan, Pat Davis, Senator Esser, Bob Lohn and all of you as we celebrate Earth Day and work in partnership to restore the Duwamish.

The Duwamish is Seattle�s hometown river�the heart of the Puget Sound. Yet, for nearly a century, we�ve treated this natural gem like a sewer.

Today we resolve to give back and to restore the Duwamish and, by our work together, to renew our faith in our community, the environment, and the next generation of Washingtonians.

We know that investment, focus, and citizen action are virtues�and improving the health of the Duwamish and Puget Sound requires all three.

Puget Sound is our country�s second-largest marine estuary, and cleaning up and protecting it is one of my highest environmental priorities.

In my 2006 supplemental budget, I designated $52 million to clean-up toxic sites, prevent oil spills and continued toxic contamination, restore near-shore, estuary, and salmon habitats, help homeowners with Sound clean-up, and make state parks and other facilities more environmentally sound�beginning with wastewater and sewer projects at six marine state parks.

With Puget Sound, we already have a rich tradition to build upon: Our watershed-based salmon recovery plans. These efforts are part of the �Washington Way��a bottom-up strategy that does away with the traditional command-and-control. The �Washington Way� is an alternative that allows citizens to feel personally invested in good outcomes and to mend the torn political fabric in Olympia�in part, by pulling the work out of our Capitol and putting it back into the field.

Last December, we launched the Puget Sound Partnership, a public-private effort to help solve environmental challenges in the Sound. I�m honored to co-chair the Partnership with Bill Ruckelshaus and Billy Frank, Jr., and to serve with other members such as People for Puget Sound�s own Kathy Fletcher.

Our Partnership�s long-term goals include identifying the best ways to improve the Sound�s water quality, keeping regional streams flowing, protecting and restoring critical shoreline habitat, and helping recover key species at risk from pollution such as orca whales, salmon, and ground fish.

I�m proud that we�re working in common cause because I believe government should be about solving problems in a collaborative, commonsense way. Today we honor that belief�but it�s just the first step. We need to stay the course on the Duwamish and Puget Sound.

In my State of the State address in January, I said that we must see ourselves through history�s lens. A generation from now, our children and grandchildren will wonder what took us so long!

Let�s hope that they�ll see our focus, creativity, and hard work on Puget Sound for what it is�a natural extension of our values as Washingtonians: The values of responsibility, farsightedness, and stewardship.

A clean and healthy Duwamish River and Puget Sound are a legacy that will be enjoyed for generations to come.

Thank you.


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