Tacoma’s new Congresswoman Strickland must seize moment to help heal Puget Sound

As Tacoma’s Marilyn Strickland settles into her new job as Washington’s junior member of Congress, she’d do well to stake claim to issues that resonate deeply with folks back home. More than that, she should focus on leaving a legacy for generations to come.

Helping re-launch the Puget Sound Recovery Caucus is a good fit for the freshman representative in the 10th Congressional District.

Strickland’s two terms as Tacoma mayor gave her a front-row seat to a federal Superfund cleanup site; she’s very familiar with ongoing work to reverse decades of industrial contamination in Commencement Bay. She brings a keen local perspective to the national dialogue on environmental stewardship.

Strickland joins her fellow South Sound Democrat, Rep. Derek Kilmer of Gig Harbor, in trying to boost Puget Sound on the federal priority list. She’s the obvious replacement for Denny Heck of Olympia, who didn’t run for reelection in the 10th District last year. Heck and Kilmer co-founded the Recovery Caucus in 2013.

After four years of Trump administration neglect, there’s now an opportunity to turn the tide. The House and Senate are controlled by Democrats, and the Biden Administration has promised an ambitious climate change agenda.

Biden’s plan meshes with the three-pronged mission of the Puget Sound Recovery Caucus: preventing pollution from urban stormwater runoff, protecting and restoring habitat, and restoring and re-opening shellfish beds.

The trick will be ensuring the Pacific Northwest gets its share of the pie. That means enshrining Puget Sound, once and for all, as a nationally significant body of water.

Caucus co-chairs Kilmer and Strickland should spare no energy and call in favors to accomplish this. (Other members of Washington’s delegation have participated in the past and are expected to re-enlist.)

First up: Securing passage of the Puget SOS Act, which aims to carry the “Save our Sound” rallying cry to the national stage. Among other things, it would establish a Puget Sound Recovery National Program Office inside the Environmental Protection Agency.

Or as Strickland said in an interview with the TNT Editorial Page editor Tuesday: “It will elevate the importance of Puget Sound the same way people think of Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes.”

The caucus enjoyed some traction during the Obama administration; a federal memorandum of understanding was signed in 2016 to address concerns such as regional salmon recovery and tribal treaty rights.

The Trump administration was less hospitable to Puget Sound concerns, but Kilmer and Heck still made modest gains. In the last two years, they secured consecutive double-digit increases to a key program for water quality, shoreline enhancement and fish-passage projects. Last year they won new investments in maritime heritage sites.

Also last year, the Puget SOS Act finally won House approval after five years in limbo.

Kilmer and Strickland plan to re-introduce the bill this week. If they can get it through both the House and Senate this year, that would be a laudable achievement. A Biden bill signing on Earth Day? Dare to dream.

“Even with the pandemic and everything else going in Congress right now, (Puget Sound recovery) remains a priority for our delegation,” Strickland told us.

Strickland may change the minds of doubters if she makes progress on environmental initiatives. She thrived as the moderate Democrat in the 2020 congressional race, while progressive opponent Beth Doglio of Olympia locked down support from conservationists and climate-change activists.

But politics are the least of our concerns. Puget Sound’s ailing vital signs show it needs champions at every level, in government and on the ground. Native fish runs are dying, endangered orcas may go extinct in our lifetimes and shellfish beds are being hammered by ocean acidification. Our rich biodiversity and natural-resource-based economy are in peril, from inland waters to the northern reaches of the Salish Sea.

The ecosystem that sustains us has no time to lose. The Puget Sound Recovery Caucus has no time to waste.

This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 5:45 AM.