12.16.21

Senators Cantwell and Murray Announce $34 Million in EPA Grants for Puget Sound Recovery, Salmon Restoration

EPA grant funds will support state, local, Tribal, and federal partners’ Puget Sound recovery efforts, including salmon restoration, pollution cleanup, and green infrastructure

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced $34 million to support the continued conservation and restoration of Puget Sound. Funding was awarded through the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Estuary Program and Puget Sound geographic funds to support development and implementation of the Puget Sound Action Agenda, among other Puget Sound recovery activities. Funding will support state, local, and Tribal Puget Sound recovery efforts including habitat restoration, pollution cleanup, stormwater infrastructure, and salmon restoration projects.  

“This $34 million investment in Puget Sound recovery grants will support projects to stop stormwater pollution, improve water quality, restore habitat and make real progress toward recovering our salmon and orca populations. This investment, combined with historical investments we are making in salmon recovery through the bipartisan infrastructure package, will help turn the tide on Puget Sound recovery to benefit our people, our economy and our wildlife,” said Senator Cantwell.

“I fight for funding like this every year because protecting Puget Sound and saving our salmon is absolutely essential to Washington state’s economy and cultural heritage—it is an urgent undertaking that will require federal, state, local, and Tribal partnership. I’m glad to see the federal government stepping up here to help clean up and restore Puget Sound, which is vital to restoring our iconic salmon runs,” said Senator Murray. “I’m proud of the important federal investments Senator Cantwell and I were able to secure in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help bolster salmon populations, such as money for culvert repair, the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, and other important programs. As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I’m going to keep pushing for whatever federal dollars we can get for programs like this because we have got to do everything we can to save our salmon.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, funding will support Tribal, state, and local projects that meet the goals of both the National Estuary Program and the Puget Sound Action Agenda which is developed by the Puget Sound Partnership, the Washington state agency charged with leading the state’s collective efforts to restore and protect Puget Sound. Grant recipients include 19 federally recognized Tribes, the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, Washington’s Department of Ecology, Department of Health, Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Natural Resources, and Department of Commerce, the Puget Sound Partnership, Washington State University’s Stormwater Center, and the University of Washington’s Puget Sound Institute.

Throughout their time in the Senate, Cantwell and Murray have been staunch advocates of conservation and restoration investments for Puget Sound, and protecting and strengthening critical salmon populations. Earlier this year, Cantwell and Murray secured historic investments for salmon recovery, including $89 million for the Puget Sound Geographic Program in the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. That bill also included a number of provisions that would benefit salmon and ecosystem restoration, including $172 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF), a grant program that provides funding to states and Tribes to protect, conserve, and restore endangered and threatened salmon populations.

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