The regulatory system designed to protect Puget Sound habitats is broken and the lack of proper environmental review, and application of our most fundamental environmental laws is causing critical habitats to be lost every day.

 
With that, it is no surprise that the Action Agenda, which is the roadmap to Puget Sound recovery by 2020 developed by the Puget Sound Partnership, specifically calls for the reform of environmental regulatory programs.

• Internal auditing of the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (WDFW) Hydraulic Project Approval ( HPA) system, which is the permitting process required for all in-water construction projects in Puget Sound found that less than 20 percent of the approved projects in the pilot study actually met the state mandated of “no-net loss” of habitat function on approval.

• Similarly, a Preserve Our Islands conducted review of all the HPA’s granted in 2010 show that permits are frequently granted without important environmental protections in place as required by law. For example, state law restricts in-water construction during specific times of the year in order to protect certain fish species such as forage fish and juvenile salmon.  However, many of the permits did not include these restrictions. Most alarming, WDFW approved every permit that came before them for consideration.

• Further, the work approved stands in direct contradiction to both the Action Agenda and the federal recovery plan for chinook. For example, although the environmental risk of shoreline armoring is well documented, WDFW approved over 100 new bulkhead projects in 2010 and denied none, even though the majority of applications were not emergency requests intended to protect homes from imminent damage.  Additionally, during a time when eliminating non-point source pollution is a major funding and restoration focus, WDFW approved the construction of 35 new outfall piping structures which will discharge stormwater runoff directly into Puget Sound.

• A similar culture of regulatory failure is also present at the federal level. Like WDFW, review of the Army Corps of Engineers permitting process finds permits are frequently granted without the proper environmental protections or science-based considerations. We learned this firsthand and exposed these failures during our litigation against the Corps and the National Marine Fisheries Services during our fight for Maury Island but unfortunately, even when found to have practices that violate federal laws, the federal agencies continue on the path of “business as usual” and approve nearly 100% of permits for work that is proposed along Puget Sound shorelines.

The habitat impact of these regulatory failures is so significant that the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, which represents the Treaty Tribes of Washington State, considers these agency failures to be a direct violation of Tribal treaty rights due to the resulting ecosystem loss.
 

Yet there are currently no environmental organizations performing this vital regulatory oversight work – and without it, the recovery of Puget Sound will be impossible.

 
With this, Preserve Our Islands is moving forward with work to provide direct oversight to the regulatory process for local, state and federal permitting proposals in the greater Puget Sound region.

Using a science-based approach, we will be reviewing permits for proposed Puget Sound nearshore projects to ensure that the proper environmental laws are being applied by the regulatory agencies, and that environmental protections are given priority as mandated by law.

Any agency found to be in violation of proper environmental laws will be challenged, and the failure to protect nearshore habitats corrected.

As we have shown with our work on Maury Island, this targeted oversight is a critical component in Puget Sound recovery work. Without it, habitats are destroyed and at-risk species fall deeper into peril.

Please join us as we take a stand for Puget Sound…before it’s too late.