Northwest Finally to get long overdue Clean Up Funds.....( click the title to read the McClatchy article on this..)

( First off - my apologies that there is a huge Forest Fire Ad at the top of this article- scoll down for actual article..)
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"WASHINGTON -- Federal funding to clean up Puget Sound would jump by 150 percent, to $50 million, under a spending bill approved Wednesday by the House interior appropriations subcommittee.The money would be provided to the Environmental Protection Agency for use on such projects as monitoring the recovery of the Nisqually River estuary and cleaning up toxic waste in the Duwamish River, Elliot Bay and other sites near Bellingham, Anacortes and Olympia. But the EPA's main emphasis is trying to get a handle on controlling storm-water runoff into the Sound, perhaps the single biggest problem.
The funding is included in a $32.3 billion bill, and subcommittee action is just the first step in a long process. Even so, Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., the chairman of the subcommittee, said he expected the $50 million in Puget Sound spending to survive.

"We desperately need the money," said Dicks. "We have to do this if we want to restore Puget Sound."

Since 2006, Congress has created a special Puget Sound office within EPA and appropriated a total of $47 million in cleanup funding. Last year, Congress provided $20 million.The $50 million puts the Puget Sound cleanup on a par with the effort in Chesapeake Bay. The White House sought $475 million in the coming year for the effort to clean up the Great Lakes."
( Sadly while Christine Gregoire and Tom Eaton are in place handling the funds...it will be amazing if the money actually reaches the right Sites...)