Water cleanup agency seeking the Strait stuff
Published 4:16 am Monday, July 14, 2008
PORT ANGELES — Northwest Washington’s water-quality superagency wants Strait information from the people of the North Olympic Peninsula.
The Puget Sound Partnership — which despite its name also covers the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Admiralty Inlet — will host a four-hour workshop Thursday on action plans for the region’s waters.
Cleanliness isn’t the Partnership’s only criteria. It also will address how Washington state waters should work.
Consider this: Ediz Hook — the sand spit that has protected Klallam villages, European explorers and modern oil tankers alike — has been “starved” of sand because dams choked the Elwha River’s flow, said the group in a written statement.
That’s why massive rocks called rip rap “armor” the Hook’s north shore.
As for Thursday’s workshop, its agenda includes:
Similar workshops will be held throughout July in Bellingham, Kingston, Grapeview, Friday Harbor, Silverdale, Mount Vernon and Tukwila.
The workshop in Port Angeles is the only one that will be held on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Legislature have tasked the Partnership with cleaning up the state’s iconic waters by 2020.
Its agenda — initially due by Labor Day — must be finished by New Year’s Eve.
Among the topics that the workshop may raise are:
A more complete picture of North Peninsula problems is presented in the Draft Action Area Profile for the Strait.
It and other information on the Partnership is available from www.psp.wa.gov.
