Washington State Department of Ecology

Department of Ecology News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Nov. 4, 1999

99-226

Contact: Joan Pelley, Ecology, 360-738-6250
Joy Monjure, City of Bellingham, 360-676-6850
Carl Weimer, ReSources, 360-733-8307

Governor bestows quality-improvement award on Whatcom Watersheds Pledge program

OLYMPIA - Gov. Gary Locke today presented his Service and Quality Improvement Award to the Whatcom Watersheds Pledge program - a partnership launched 18 months ago by the Department of Ecology, city of Bellingham, ReSources and Western Washington University.

"The watershed pledge program is a model of excellence. It shows what can be accomplished in our communities when citizens, businesses and government work together to solve problems. We need similar programs in every city if we are to succeed in safeguarding water resources for people, fish and the future," Locke said.

About 18 months ago, the pledge program was launched to help citizens and businesses protect Bellingham's drinking-water source, Lake Whatcom. Since then, more than 500 households and 350 Bellingham-area businesses have "taken the pledge" to protect water and enhance salmon habitat.

The cities of Lynden, Nooksack, Everson and Sumas and the Bellingham-Whatcom Co. Chamber of Commerce have all recently adopted the pledge program.

The governor's award recognizes projects that cut government red tape, improve customer service, improve efficiency and save taxpayers' money. The Whatcom Watershed Pledge program received the highest ranking by a review panel that evaluated the effort for such things as customer-focused solutions, involvement of affected parties (stakeholders), creative ways of doing business, effective data gathering and analysis, improved compliance and proven results in saving time and money.

"Without question, preventing pollution is the most cost- and time-effective approach when dealing with problems like run-off from our lawns, parking lots, roads and farms," said Bruce Barbour of Ecology. "Cleaning up pollution is always more expensive and technically difficult."

Barbour said the pledge program continues to gain momentum, with the state of Oregon and several cities in British Columbia interested in using the pledge model.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which provided a $250,000 grant to develop the pledge program, hopes the model will be replicated across the nation.