Puget Sound is in terrible condition. Gov. Christine Gregoire announced today that she wants to spend $42 million towards clean up and appointed a panel of political, business, and environmental leaders to come up with a plan for full restoration of the Sound by 2020.

The panel includes William Ruckelshaus, former head of the EPA who noted, "It will take a miracle." What a ray of hopeful sunshine!

But, realistically, full clean up will take a miracle (better stop that War on Christmas, people!) if a proposal doesn't include a look at population trends, as the Times indicated in today's article:

Perhaps the biggest challenge to the health of the Sound will be the region's population, which is expected to swell by 1.5 million people by 2020. That could mean more cars leaving toxic chemicals, and more land cleared for homes, which can mean dirtier water flowing to the Sound.

Their ain't no "could mean" about it.... 1.5 million more people means a shit load of new cars on the road. A campaign to save the Sound - to save our regions environmental heritage - must include a campaign to expand our rapid transit systems.

Yet another reason why Western Washington needs to have one transit authority which can create a region wide mass transit plan of attack against all of the problems - environmental, economic and beyond - that our current weak transit infrastructure currently creates.

Sound Transit? Something new? I don't know, but time is running out. I don't want to regale my kids with stories of long extinct Orcas and summers when swimming in the sound was just cold, not poisonous.

Related Links:
Seattle PI: Special Report - Our Troubled Sound
Seattle Times: Gregoire seeks Sound cleanup