Sound recovery effort gets $24 million

The Puget Sound region is getting an infusion of federal cash to help return the waterway to better health.

The more than $24 million included in the federal budget will help raise the recovery of the Sound to national prominence, environmentalists said.

"This is great. It shows that our congressional delegation, Norm Dicks and others, have really stepped up," said Kathy Fletcher, executive director of People for Puget Sound. "This is a sign that Puget Sound is on the national agenda."

Gov. Chris Gregoire presented a blueprint a year ago for recovering the Sound's health by 2020. Participants repeatedly say that to reach their goals of making the Sound safe for fishing, swimming and collecting shellfish -- an effort that will cost billions -- the project needs to be elevated to the level of widely known projects such as Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes.

The budget approved Wednesday includes $20 million for the Environmental Protection Agency to pay for research and remediation of the Sound.

An additional $1.3 million is for the Puget Sound Nearshore Restoration Partnership, a state and federal effort to study the shoreline in order to prioritize restoration and make sure it's effective. There's also $3 million for the Puget Sound and Adjacent Waters program, which pays for actual restoration work and allows for pilot projects to see what works best.

"It does feel like we're really moving the ball forward in ways we haven't as a region in the past," said Jacques White, director of The Nature Conservancy's marine conservation program in Washington.