Publication Summary

The 2006 Legislature provided Ecology $1.45 million in supplemental funding to put mobile spill response and protection equipment in communities across the state. Nearly two-thirds of the equipment will be placed in the Puget Sound region, a total investment of about $950,000. The equipment helps local governments – who often are the first responders to an oil spill – deploy oil containment boom, absorbent materials and take other timely response measures that can greatly reduce the environmental and economic impacts of an oil spill. As of Dec. 22, 2006, xxx, Ecology had received 91 grant applications and approved 41 requests for equipment. The agency already had delivered approximately 20 response equipment trailers to local governments in Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Pierce, San Juan and Whatcom counties. The average cost for each portable trailer, including training for hundreds of local responders, is about $20,000. Distribution of all equipment should be complete by June 30, 2007.