Federal funds totaling $1.6 million will pay for more weather sensors and rescue tugboats to help protect the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound from oil spills and other maritime mishaps.
The money also will fund an expanded vessel tracking system and provide oil spill prevention training for the waterways spanning the San Juan Islands, Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean.
But exactly where tugboats and equipment earmarked by the funds — announced Monday by Sen. Patty Murray — will be stationed is yet to be determined.
At a Seattle news conference, Murray, D-Shoreline, was joined by Coast Guard Capt. Danny Ellis, captain of the port for Puget Sound.
The tugboats would be on standby when Ellis determines there could be problems anywhere in the Strait of Juan de Fuca or Puget Sound, said Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Aaron Meadows-Hills.
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The rest of the story appears in the Tuesday Peninsula Daily News.