About Us > Message from the Director

Governor Gregoire has made it her goal to move Washington forward in its ability to successfully compete in global economy. The Department of Ecology, with our mission, goals, and five strategic priorities, plays an important part in achieving the governor's goal.

To compete successfully, Washington needs clean water, air, and soil; and healthy people, communities, and workplaces. We also need adequate natural resources to sustain growing communities, economic output, transportation, and our workforce. We must be smart in how we use our limited water so that there is enough for fish, farms, and communities; now and in the future.

When the President of China visited the "two Washingtons" (state and D.C.) in the spring of 2006, he specifically noted the natural beauty and amenities of our state. He was genuinely impressed that we have achieved the economic prosperity that we have and yet maintained a very high-quality environment. Indeed, one of our most important competitive advantages in the global economy is that we are recognized as the clean, green corner of the United States.

Since the Department of Ecology was created in 1970, we've helped achieve far-reaching improvements for Washington's air, land, and water. Air quality is significantly improved, industrial and municipal waste water discharges have been greatly reduced, we generate half the hazardous waste we did twenty years ago, landfills have been modernized, recycling is now widely embraced, large oil spills are rare, and thousands of contaminated sites have been cleaned up.

However, our state's natural environment is still under tremendous pressure — from rapidly growing communities, increasing demand on water supplies, and the toxic substances used in industrial processes and many consumer products. These pressures threaten our state's public health, economic stability, and quality of life.

At the conclusion of my first four years, I want to look back and see measurable progress in several critical areas. Governor Gregoire and I have selected five major strategic priorities where focused energy and creative leadership by the agency will allow Ecology and our many partners to make real progress on protecting human health and the environment, and improving our quality of life. We are focusing special emphasis on:

Successfully managing our water to ensure availability for fish, farms, and people; now and for the future. Our rivers, streams, lakes, and groundwater are very important, valuable resources. The competition for this resource is intensifying over time. Demand is increasing for out-of-stream use by people, business, and farmers. Likewise, demand for instream uses for fish, wildlife habitat, and recreation is also increasing. Our current system of water management struggles to cope with this escalating demand. We are working hard to find better ways to meet current water needs, while making sure future water will be available for fish, farms, people, and the natural environment.

Reducing toxic threats, with special concern for infants and children. Businesses have significantly reduced the amount of toxic chemicals they generate and dispose of in Washington, but toxic substances are still rapidly accumulating in our homes, offices, and the natural environment. Unfortunately, some of these toxins concentrate in our bodies. The Department of Ecology is ramping up its efforts to reduce toxins that threaten human and environmental health.

Making sure environmental mitigation works. When a new development project is proposed in Washington, a significant effort is made to identify any adverse environmental effects that the proposed project will cause. Any adverse impacts that can't be avoided must be "mitigated" by appropriately designed environmental restoration or protection projects. Unfortunately, a number of credible studies show that required environmental mitigation is only completed 50% of the time. Making matters worse, the process of developing mitigation conditions is expensive, unpredictable, and time-consuming. We are working on an approach that is more efficient and predictable for permit applicants, and for the agency, in a way that also effectively and permanently restores and preserves high-value environmental resources within a watershed.

Protecting and restoring Puget Sound and Hood Canal. Beneath its beautiful blue-green waters, Puget Sound is not healthy. Poisoned by decades of industrial, chemical, municipal, residential, and agricultural pollution, many critical species in the water and near the shore are declining. Governor Gregoire has made it a top priority of state government to bring new focus and energy to restoring the health of Puget Sound and Hood Canal. Our ambitious goal is to restore Puget Sound to a healthy ecosystem by 2020.

Responding aggressively to the challenge of climate change and global warming. Washington is especially vulnerable to climate change because of our dependence on snow pack and glaciers for summer stream flows and because the expected rise in sea levels threatens our coastal communities. Extreme weather, warming climate, reduced snow pack and sea level rise are four major ways climate change threatens Washington's economy, environment and communities. More than 45 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in our state are associated with transportation (cars, trucks, planes, and ships). This means individuals can make a difference in reducing our contribution to global warming. Climate change also provides economic opportunities. The state of Washington is taking climate change seriously. Governor Gregoire signed an executive order establishing goals for reductions in climate pollution, increases in jobs, and reductions in expenditures on imported fuel. Our state has already taken action to cut emissions by 20% by 2050.

At Ecology, we are also committed to making progress on streamlining permits, improving regulatory processes, and being more innovative and helpful in delivering services.

We are also beginning the daunting process of improving our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to prepare for the impacts of climate change.

I invite you to become more familiar with Ecology's programs, including the laws we implement and uphold, the amount of money appropriated to the agency this biennium, and what we are doing to meet our priorities, goals, and mission. Protecting human health, the environment, and Washington's quality of life — and helping each Washington resident to do the same — is what we are here to do.

Jay J. Manning
Director