If you love Puget Sound, you'll help clean it up

A whole lot of people are waiting for David Dicks to get the lead out — and the mercury and other toxins eroding the marine habitat of Puget Sound.

Dicks is executive director of Puget Sound Partnership, a new state agency and the evolutionary byproduct of years of organizational shuffling in Olympia to rescue the Sound. He was plugged into the top job in August by Gov. Christine Gregoire, with a charge to shake things up administratively and produce measurable results. So far, he has delivered on the first half.

So, be honest, did your eyes read right over the word "rescue" in the previous paragraph? Dicks is acutely aware one of his biggest challenges is convincing a Puget Sound-loving public that the sparkly body of water is in trouble.

He did not need to motivate any of the 535 people signed up last Saturday for Sound Waters, an annual one-day extravaganza of seminars presented by the WSU Island County Beach Watchers at Coupeville, on Whidbey Island.

Since 1989, this program of Washington State University Extension has been training local residents to lead, organize and educate thousands of volunteers to take care of their sliver of Puget Sound. Beach Watchers began in Island County and now operates in Clallam, Jefferson, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish and Whatcom counties.

Dicks was on the agenda as keynote speaker, but he spent Friday evening and all-day Saturday with Beach Watcher coordinators and volunteers to get inside a concept that works. He wants to duplicate the sense of urgency and ownership — the evident passion — elsewhere around the Sound.

State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, the Camano Island Democrat, emphasized the human connection with the imperative to "educate before we regulate." She was addressing a packed high-school auditorium, but she might as well been talking directly to Dicks: "As we start forward to clean up Puget Sound, we can pass all kinds of laws, but it is the people who will clean up Puget Sound."

She received a standing ovation from the folks who have spent years inventorying eelgrass, monitoring water quality, filling pickups with beach debris and derelict fishing gear, mapping creosote pollution and learning how to live, work and play in harmony with the Sound.

Dicks has a sense of humor that he uses to good effect. That is important, because he will need it.

A brisk description of the territory covered by the Puget Sound Partnership is from the "snow caps to the white caps." That covers 14 major rivers, 2,500 miles of shoreline, 4 million people and another 1.5 million on the way.

The region has been through this drill before, with the cleanup of Lake Washington. Dicks reminds everyone that effort failed a couple of times, before it clicked. Maybe it took that famous picture of the little kids standing in front of the sign warning them to stay out of the fetid water.

Puget Sound never takes a bad photo: picture dappled sunlight and a killer whale leaping high enough to dunk a basketball. Dicks is clear his job is not to overstate the problem or scare people, just give them the facts.

This environmental lawyer via Stanford law school is adding another credential: He is getting dive certified so he can see it all firsthand.

The goal is to raise public awareness, but also to create a single, unified action agenda and make the cleanup effort — and all the diverse players — accountable for results. I have this perverse desire to read about Puget Sound Partnership telling the state Department of Ecology to shape up.

An early challenge is to establish a baseline for the Sound's health, so progress can be measured. The approach also means prioritizing activities. In a great quip attributed to Kathy Fletcher, founder of People for Puget Sound, no more random acts of kindness.

People want to do the right thing. In that spirit, 12 local Puget Sound governments will be paid to provide technical assistance to help businesses identify pollution sources, advise on solutions and assist with permits and paperwork. Perfect.

Explain the problem, take away the mystery and threat. Create ways to help. Make a clean Puget Sound a matter of pride of ownership.

Dicks knew it coming in, but he really got it after a day with Beach Watchers.

Lance Dickie's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is ldickie@seattletimes.com; for a podcast Q&A with the author, go to Opinion at seattletimes.com