Puget Sound Coordinated Monitoring Program

Ecology is supporting an exciting new effort to create a Puget Sound Coordinated Monitoring Program. The purpose of this effort is to establish a new coordinated multi-party structure to provide credible and useful information about the Puget Sound Basin’s freshwater and marine environments and aquatic habitat. We hope that this program will guide Ecology’s and others’ monitoring efforts and improve our policy and management decisions.

An exploratory committee recognized the need for coordinated monitoring to control costs and provide better information to strengthen our decision making processes. The exploratory committee submitted a report and recommendations in March 2007. They looked at coordinated monitoring programs that are up and running elsewhere in the country; the detailed analysis in the report provides an excellent starting point for our efforts. The legislature provided Ecology with funding to take the next steps to develop a coordinated regional monitoring program.

A new Governance Committee has been formed to create an organizational structure and a decision-making process that are suited to the unique interests and circumstances of the Puget Sound Basin. The support and involvement of federal, tribal, state, and local governments, the private sector, academia and environmental organizations will be critical to the success of this effort.

A Technical Advisory Committee including many of these groups is in the process of identifying pilot projects for the program to administer.

Questions should be directed to Karen Dinicola, Project Manager, at 360.407.6550.

Problem and Purpose Statement

Status Report to the Puget Sound Science Panel

The Governance Committee’s deliberations on institutional structure options for a coordinated monitoring program were presented to the Puget Sound Science Panel at its meeting on April 15, 2008.

The discussion paper and PowerPoint presentation are available for download.