As gale-force winds howled outside, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday promised the strongest winds of change in two decades on the long-stalled drive to rescue environmentally ailing Puget Sound -- work that could cost nearly $9 billion by 2020.

Capping an intense yearlong effort by a panel of prominent business and government leaders to understand and start fixing the woes of Washington's picturesque inland sea, Gregoire proposed a $220 million, two-year jump-start.

Her plan would accelerate the pace of cleaning up toxic dumps and septic tanks. It would protect wetlands and shorelines that nourish the Sound's sea life. But it left serious doubts the state is ready to deal with the fastest-growing threat to the Sound.

That threat is the pollution funneled by the drenching element of Wednesday's storm -- the rain that streams into the Sound from city streets and suburban lawns after every downpour, carrying with it oil and grease and fertilizer and dog droppings and so much more.

"By the time an entire community's stuff collects and hits the end of a (drainage) pipe ... there is a brown, nasty, noxious soup of gunk that spews forth into Puget Sound," said eyewitness and scuba diver Mike Racine of the Washington Scuba Alliance, whom Gregoire invited to join her announcement.

Racine asked onlookers to imagine what he'd seen in oxygen-starved Hood Canal: "A giant Pacific octopus 2 feet away from you, gasping, dying and suffocating in an agonizing way."

As raindrops were blown nearly horizontal outside the Olympic Sculpture Park, Gregoire allowed that stormwater pollution was surely happening as close as a nearby pipe into Elliott Bay.

"Imagine what it looks like right now going out that pipe into Puget Sound, and it's happening literally all around the Sound," she said.

Overall, her blueprint was praised by environmentalists, state lawmakers and others as a strong first step -- with some shortcomings.

Gregoire's proposal "is the stuff that legacies are made of," said state Rep. Dave Upthegrove, D-Des Moines, chairman of the new Select Committee on Puget Sound. "I was thrilled."

But he was concerned about important pieces of Puget Sound recovery not mentioned in Wednesday's announcement.

Oil spill prevention -- a hot topic following spills in recent years that damaged miles of shoreline -- was not addressed explicitly, Upthegrove noted.

And while Gregoire proposed that the largest chunk of cleanup money be targeted at pollution from septic tanks, Upthegrove questioned whether enough was earmarked for septic pollution at shoreline state parks. That would build citizens' confidence in the state government, Upthegrove said.

"We need to get our own house in order," he said.

Gregoire appointed the panel of government and private-sector leaders known as the Puget Sound Partnership that delivered its final report Wednesday. The panel called for finding a new way to raise money to aid the Sound. Gregoire said no -- for now.

"Washingtonians, and particularly those around Puget Sound, absolutely love the Sound," Gregoire said. "What they don't understand is that below that beautiful and inspiring surface is a sick Puget Sound."

She said she won't propose new taxes or fees until citizens understand that, and are convinced that a fiscally responsible Save the Sound campaign is getting things done.

"We're not there yet," Gregoire said, adding, "Eventually, we're going to have to make additional sizable investments in the Sound."

Others think the public is ready to pay for restoration of the Sound now.

"I would not have been unhappy with a new source of funding," said state Rep. Sherry Appleton, a Kitsap County Democrat appointed to the Partnership by Gregoire.

A recent Elway Poll of Puget Sound residents found that 68 percent of the more than 400 respondents would "definitely" or "probably" be willing to pay an extra $5 a month to clean up the Sound. If every resident of counties bordering Puget Sound paid that much, it would raise $245 million a year. Statewide, it would be $360 million a year.

Some restoration money is expected to come from the federal government. With Congress in the hands of Democrats, Rep. Norm Dicks, a Partnership member, controls purse strings of key federal agencies.

"The challenge of Puget Sound is very daunting," Dicks said. "It's going to require a major partnership between local governments, who have to do all the projects -- all this stormwater, all these septic tanks, all the sewer problems -- (and) the state and federal governments."

Appleton and state Sen. Phil Rockefeller, another Partnership member, both supported stronger steps.

"We think our communities want action," said Rockefeller, a Democrat from Kitsap County.

On the contentious issue of how to control and clean polluted stormwater, the blueprint's recommendations are "a start," Appleton said. "It's not enough."

Gregoire's plan calls for the Legislature to allocate $25 million to the stormwater problem, in part for local governments to do demonstration projects for "low-impact development."

But that's not what was recommended by a group of prominent scientists who critiqued the Partnership's plan in October, and who said the approach endorsed in the plan "leans on failed practices."

In response, Partnership members agreed that their plan is inadequate. They decided to form a special task force of scientists to focus intensively on the issue. But later they transformed that into a group of scientists, politicians and others who will examine a laundry list of water quality concerns.

"I don't know where to start with expressing my frustration," said stormwater consultant Tom Holz, one of the critical scientists. "We've pretty well demonstrated that the end-of-pipe systems that we hang on to the end of the stormwater (pipe) after we commit a holocaust upon the land don't do anything.

"This is well known with hydrologists and senior professionals who deal with stormwater daily. ... We have to go to land-use reform if we're going to see any progress."

Holz said developers should start leaving large swaths of land forested and place homes on cleared spaces in between instead of leveling hillsides and starting from scratch.

Sam Anderson, a Partnership member who works as executive director of the Master Builders Association of King & Snohomish Counties, said he favored de-emphasizing the stormwater focus.

"Why would you only look at stormwater?" Anderson asked. "Really, the challenge is to look at all of the contributions to pollution of the Sound."

He said new developments pay as much as $17,000 a home to put into effect the policies that Holz and his colleagues consider "failed."

Gregoire acknowledged that the problem could get worse as more than 1.4 million newcomers arrive by 2020.

"We've made progress in recent years and some would ask why haven't we gotten much done," she said. "Let's be honest about it: We've been overwhelmed by population growth, and it isn't going to stop."

Just after Gregoire's announcement ended, the winds outside subsided and the sun broke through.

GREGOIRE'S POLICY PROPOSALS

Create a new entity to oversee and take responsibility for the recovery of the Sound by 2020, driven by science that includes performance measures.

Improve oversight of septic systems.

Require early steps to control pollution where shellfish are inedible because of the pollution.

Ban chemical flame retardants if a safe substitute is available.

GREGOIRE'S SPENDING PROPOSALS

$56.3 million to help homeowners fix leaking septic systems; improve local government programs to oversee septic systems; and continue upgrades to systems at shoreside state parks.

$54.7 million to clean up 60 contaminated sites within a half-mile of Puget Sound.

$40.7 million to protect areas including shorelines, floodplains and streamside forests.

$37.4 million to restore shorelines by removing toxic creosote-soaked poles, plant vegetation near shorelines and remove rock walls that control erosion but damage beaches.

$25.3 million to help cities and counties comply with new stormwater rules; retrofit existing stormwater systems; and pay for pilot projects testing less conventional means of stormwater control.

$5.8 million to improve public awareness about the Sound.

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