Locke, Dicks sound alarm on imperiled Hood Canal

By DAVID AMMONS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Hood Canal, a scenic saltwater inlet, is badly polluted and government needs to quickly identify the culprits and reverse the damage before the waterway becomes a dead sea, Gov. Gary Locke and U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks said Monday.

The leaders announced a crackdown that will include federal, state, local, tribal and volunteer efforts, infused by millions in state and federal dollars. They're hoping to announce a plan of attack by April.

Hood Canal is one of the biggest pollution hot spots on the West Coast, said Brad Ack, chairman of the interagency Puget Sound Action Team.

"This is an area that rises to the top as a flashing red light, a situation that needs attention," he said.

Dicks, D-Wash., and fellow Democrat Locke said it probably will require the thousands of people who live along the 61-mile-long waterway to change their ways - preferably through voluntary compliance, rather than government edict or shutdowns.

The "canal" was formed by glacial action 3 million years ago and got its final hook shape about 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. Separating the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas, it has 242 miles of shoreline, compared with the total Puget Sound shoreline of about 2,500 miles.

In the past two years, thousands of fish and shellfish have died and parts of the canal have been closed to fishing. At their joint news conference, Dicks and Locke displayed a jarring set of pictures - one a bucolic seascape, the other a still life of dead fish that washed ashore.

Locke said the pollution includes stormwater runoff from roads and developed areas, failing septic systems, agricultural runoffs and fertilizers from lawns and farms. The pollution causes plankton and algae to grow, robbing fish of oxygen they need to survive. The problem is particularly bad for bottom fish, octopi and sea cucumbers.

Monitoring shows that the problem is growing worse, Locke said.

"It's the development," Dicks said.

As the population grows and the trappings of civilization spring up along the shoreline, pollution seems to follow, he said. It's not a single industrial polluter or U.S. Navy operations on the canal or some other installation causing the bulk of the problem - "It's us," he said.

There are, for instance, an estimated 6,000 cabins and year-round homes in lower Hood Canal, and 5,500 septic tanks in the lower canal watershed. Mason County has one part-time employee assigned to regulating septic tanks, and no ordinance requiring property owners to allow the inspector on their property.

In the past 10 years, Belfair, at the tip of the canal in unincorporated Mason County, has been allowed to grow into a full-scale town, with supermarkets, restaurants and video stores, all without a sewer system.

Many of the cottages and fancy homes lining the shore are not hooked up to sewer.

"It's a death by a thousand cuts," Ack said, referring to the numerous causes of the problem.

"We want everyone to be part of the solution," Dicks said.

He borrowed a line from a TV commercial when asked what the canal contributes to the state economy via the sports and commercial fishery, tourism, the Navy and so on.

"Priceless," he said.

Ack said the immediate challenge is to determine the relative contribution of each type of pollution. After coming up with that list, a team of government, tribal and private experts will devise a plan for dealing with each cause, starting with the worst culprits, he said.

Locke and Dicks said the state and federal governments already have contributed to the crash program, and both will seek special appropriations. State House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, said the Legislature is likely to approve Locke's request for $100,000. Dicks and the congressional delegation have secured $850,000 for the action team and the U.S. Geological Survey, and another $3 million will be sought.

Mike Mathews of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center at Keyport announced that the Navy will help gather more extensive information about the canal's problems. The Navy has its West Coast ballistic missile submarine base on the canal, at Bangor.

He said the Navy isn't adding to the pollution, but is open to improvement.

"We must reduce - and then reverse - key causes of this critical environmental problem," the governor said. "It will take a unified effort to succeed, but I'm confident we can do it.

"No one wants to see Hood Canal become a dead sea."