June 10, 2009

Big Boost for Puget Sound Cleanup Approved

The House subcommittee that Norm chairs today approved a major increase in funding for the Puget Sound pollution cleanup effort, recommending $50 million in the next fiscal year, a funding level equivalent to the federal role in the Chesapeake Bay cleanup program.

Norm has long sought to elevate the federal government’s priority for funding research and remedial actions on Puget Sound, the nation’s second largest estuary.  Though the EPA had addressed targeted sites around the Sound through its nationwide estuary program for many years, he launched the first specifically-designated Puget Sound program within the EPA budget in 2005, and he has worked to expand its scope and funding since then.

Consistent with the Obama Administration’s FY 2010 budget proposals for dramatic increases in the Great Lakes cleanup funding, Norm seized the opportunity as his panel was considering next year’s appropriations bill to boost the federal assistance for Puget Sound from $20 million in the current year to $50 million in the next fiscal year.

“This is a much more appropriate federal commitment, on par with the multi-jurisdictional program that we have been funding on the Chesapeake Bay and, similarly, complementing pollution control efforts at the state and local level,” he commented after today's markup session. 

The House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee unanimously approved the bill, which also included another major increment --$20 million in the next fiscal year—in the budget of the National Park Service for the effort to remove the two dams on the Elwha River and restore what was once one of our region’s greatest salmon-producing rivers. 

The Elwha restoration project is also benefitting this year from an allocation of $54 million that was approved as part of the economic stimulus program in order to create near-term employment.


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