Washington state has cleaned up nearly 700 contaminated sites over the past four years, is managing stormwater better, and is streamlining grants and loans for water projects across the state.
Those were some of the results discussed Wednesday as Gov. Jay Inslee met with agency directors to discuss progress on key environmental goals.
“In the Boy Scouts, they teach you to leave your campsite cleaner than you found it,” said Gov. Jay Inslee. “That’s what this is about.”
As part of his Results Washington initiative, Inslee is tracking dozens of goals related to education, the economy, the environment, health and government effectiveness.
Wednesday’s discussion highlighted work by the Department of Ecology and its partners to clean up hundreds of contaminated sites. Among them: Anacortes’ Custom Plywood site and Scott Paper Mill site, Port Gamble Bay and Seattle’s South Lake Union area.
“Seeing a beach where we couldn’t see a beach for 150 years is just so incredible,” said Jeromy Sullivan, chairman of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe. He called the project a great example of working together on a cleanup.
The group also discussed efforts to manage stormwater, with 100 projects completed over the past four years. Examples included projects in Tacoma, Spokane County and Whatcom County.
Inslee also praised efforts to make it simpler for local partners to apply for grants and loans for water quality and salmon recovery projects. State agencies are streamlining the complex application process to save time and stretch public dollars.
Watch footage from the meeting here.