Beautiful scenery, easy access and abundant sea life mask the fragile health of Puget Sound, according to an exhaustive report released this week.
We already knew that the Sound is one of Cascadia's key features yet is threatened by habitat loss, pollution runoff and contaminated sediment. The governor created the Puget Sound Partnership in 2005 to come up with ways to stem the deterioration.
"If leaders aren't able to persuade and inspire the public to get involved in improving the sound's health, "I'm not sure we can win," said Brad Ack, director of Gregoire's Puget Sound Action Team, according to the AP.
"There's this disconnect between what the actual state of the sound is and what people's impression is, because it looks beautiful - the water sparkles, the mountains glisten," he said.
The report identifies problems and calls for a coordinated clean-up made of local efforts overseen by a regional body. It doesn't say who should lead it or how much it should cost. Those issues are supposed to be attacked in another report late this year.
Here's a readable summary of the interim report, from Tuesday's Olympian.