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Feb. 18, 2004
Federal funds to help salmon in Green/Duwamish River
Key officials and stakeholders will gather in Tukwila Thursday to thank U.S. Senator Patty Murray and U.S. Representative Norm Dicks for securing “new start” construction funding for a comprehensive ecosystem restoration effort in the Green/Duwamish River watershed.
Sen. Murray and King County Executive Ron Sims are featured speakers for the celebration, which is planned Thursday, Feb. 19, 9 a.m., at the Tukwila Community Center, 12424 42nd Ave. South, in Tukwila.
Sen. Murray and Rep. Dicks were instrumental in securing the first $500,000 new start construction funding in the 2004 Federal budget for the Green/Duwamish Ecosystem Restoration Project. This funding allows construction to begin on two key sites this summer and paves the way to obtain future funding for the project, which aims to restore the health of a Green/Duwamish River watershed that has been dramatically transformed by human activities in the last 100 years.
“We can’t thank Senator Murray and Representative Dicks enough,” said Executive Sims. “Their amazing work achieving this new construction budget was critical to keeping these important regional restoration projects on track and protecting a nine-year investment by all the project partners. The Ecosystem Restoration Project will help restore the health of the watershed for the benefit of fish, wildlife, and the people who call it home.”
“Preserving the Green and Duwamish River Basin is critical to our water supply, recreational opportunities and salmon recovery efforts,” said Senator Patty Murray. “King County and the cities in the basin have shown a strong desire to begin restoration work, and I’m pleased to have been able to make the federal funding available.”
The Green/Duwamish Ecosystem Restoration Project, initiated in a 1995 study, is the culmination of nine years of collaborative efforts by the Army Corps of Engineers, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, King County, all 15 cities in the Green/Duwamish watershed, the City of Tacoma, and numerous public agency and non-governmental resource groups.
Since the project was first authorized, the coalition of local jurisdictions in partnership with the Corps have been completing design and engineering tasks for construction. Total cost of construction for the 45 restoration sites authorized for the project in the Water Resource Development Act of 2000 is estimated at $113 million over 10 years.
“This designation marks a significant beginning that I hope all watersheds in the Northwest follow,” said Congressman Norm Dicks, who has worked to secure federal funding for the Corps of Engineers and the City of Tacoma’s efforts in the Green River Watershed for more than 15 years. “Linking our restoration efforts from the very top of our watersheds to the point where our rivers flow into Puget Sound is essential to restoring our salmon runs.
“The Green/Duwamish restoration effort should serve as a model to all other watersheds,” Dicks said. “Partnership, comprehensive (top to bottom) watershed science and planning are the only way we can be successful.”
“This is a great day, but it is only the beginning,” Sims said. “Achieving approval of our Federal budget request for 2005 – so important to continuing our momentum – will be a tough challenge given the Administration’s proposed budget. We look forward to working with our Congressional delegation and want to express our deep gratitude for their help in getting the ball rolling.”
The two projects initially funded include North Wind’s Weir, where two acres of inter-tidal estuary will be restored in a heavily industrialized area of the Lower Duwamish. Also scheduled this summer is a restoration and realignment project on a portion of Meridian Valley Creek in Kent.
Sims said the partners are ready to work on three more high priority sites depending on 2005 federal funds available.
“This is a unique opportunity in a watershed that has both a fairly healthy upper basin, a large federal flood control project, and significant human development and impacts in the lower basin,” said Steven Mullet, Mayor of the City of Tukwila and Chair of the Water Resources Inventory Area 9 Forum. “The Construction New Start in 2004 will begin to realize the benefits of this investment through significant improvements in the ecosystem health that will benefit fish, wildlife, and people throughout the watershed.”
The Green/Duwamish Restoration Project was formulated in connection with the new Howard Hanson Dam (HHD) fish passage facility and Tacoma Water’s 50 year Habitat Conservation Plan to insure a seamless, coordinated restoration effort stretching from the headwaters of the Cascades to Elliott Bay on Puget Sound. Restoration of downstream projects – as planned in the Ecosystem Restoration Project – will provide habitat needed by the fish that will use the fish passage facility at the HHD.
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