Originally published Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Introduction | How we're still failing our Sound
I f you want to see where Puget Sound's fate is being decided, turn your back to the water. Look instead at the once-forested hillsides...
STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES
A pair of developments hems in a stand of trees containing Anderson Creek, which feeds directly into Sinclair Inlet near Port Orchard. Developments like this endanger Puget Sound by paving over ground that absorbs rainwater and by pouring pollutants into the runoff.
If you want to see where Puget Sound's fate is being decided, turn your back to the water.
Look instead at the once-forested hillsides cleared for homes. Look at the wetlands filled and never replaced. Look at the beaches walled off from the sea and the streams polluted with runoff.
Despite all we've learned about Puget Sound over the years, and all the promises we keep making to do better, we haven't met the challenge.
The Sound is by no means dead. By some measures it's cleaner and healthier than it was 30 years ago. Yet that progress is at risk because we're still betraying Puget Sound with the choices we make about developing the land.
It's not because people are breaking the rules. The rules are simply inadequate for the monumental task at hand.
Now, politicians are launching an ambitious effort to protect and restore Puget Sound by 2020, costing as much as $18 billion. By then, another 800,000 people are expected to call this place home. By the end of the century, it could be another 4 million.
As a new state agency, the Puget Sound Partnership, tries to rally the public around the Sound, we all confront a basic challenge:
If we want to succeed, we have to change how we grow.
So today and for the next three days, The Seattle Times is looking inland at some of the ways our growth is undermining the health of Puget Sound.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
DNA, ballistics tie man to cop killing, police say
Greenwood merchants nervous after 3 more arsons
UW to honor war heroes with Medal of Honor shrine
Nicole Brodeur: Praise pours on the water man
Soldier from Whatcom County is killed in Afghanistan

Ken Auletta talks about "Googled"
Ken Auletta talks about Google with Brier Dudley at the Seattle Central Library.
nwjobs

Post a comment

Michelle Goodman blogs about work/life balance.
How to tell your office you're gravely ill
Post a comment
nwautos

Choosing a new sedan? Weigh the impact of your choice on your wallet and on the planet.
Post a comment
- 'Missing' SeaTac man found with new name, in new state
- Police: DNA from officer's slaying matches suspect
- Prosecutors consider charges against suspect in police shooting
- Three more fires ignite in Greenwood
- Steve Kelley | Hasselbeck gives Seahawks' sagging season a stay of execution
- Plans call for Triangle to become West Seattle gateway
- Bill Clinton meets with Senate Dems on health care
- Trucker dies as big-rig plummets off SF bridge
- McGinn next Seattle mayor; Mallahan concedes as vote gap widens
- Washington coordinator Nick Holt says his Huskies defense is improving
- Prosecutors prepare charges against suspect in police shooting
254 - House health bill unacceptable to many in Senate
247 - Pelosi tours Seattle's Swedish after health-care vote
175 - Prosecutors prepare charges against suspect in police shooting
143 - Alleged shooter tied to mosque of 9/11 hijackers
135 - Obama puts heat on Senate to speed health bill
123 - Resolute Fort Hood soldiers ready for return
119 - McGinn more than doubles his lead over Mallahan
106 - Josh Smith picks UCLA
72 - Cutaia says replay handled properly on Austin TD
69
- For 80-year-old Maple Valley man, hoops aren't just a dream
- Plans call for Triangle to become West Seattle gateway
- Three more fires ignite in Greenwood
- 'Missing' SeaTac man found with new name, in new state
- Silver Lake restaurant destroyed by fire
- Pakistani-American cafe, bar owner on verge of being Granite Falls mayor
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tours Seattle's Swedish after health-care vote
- Taste | Ruth Reichl still reigns as queen of America's culinary scene
- All You Can Eat | Fruit flies: thrill to the kill
- Police: DNA from officer's slaying matches suspect








