In addition to this strong environmental ethic, however, we had other 
significant developments. Puget Sound cleanup became a major element in 
our 1984 gubernatorial election. Scientific studies, which you have heard 
about today, begged for action on the sound. The media joined the chorus 
for pollution fighting and we even had a few highly publicized cases of 
whale deaths which some people attributed to pollution. 
All this helped set the stage for the 1985 session of the Legislature 
which produced a number of major management initiatives. 
You have already heard about the legislation creating the Puget Sound 
Water Quality Authority and its mandate to develop a cleanup plan. 
But there were three other significant bills passed. One directed Wash¬ 
ington communities to achieve the greatest reasonable reduction in com¬ 
bined sewer overflows in the shortest reasonable time. 
Another bill allowed local government the authority to raise money to 
solve pollution problems in waters where shellfish are produced. 
And still another bill focused on groundwater. It gave us the authority 
to begin protecting not only groundwater quality, but also groundwater 
quantity. 
But we weren't through. A year ago the Legislature came back into session 
and passed a cigarette tax which will raise $575 million between now and 
the year 2000. 
Those tax revenues, combined with federal and local funds, will give us an 
additional $1.7 billion to fight pollution during the next 13 years. 
But while that is a lot of money, we estimate our costs for secondary 
treatment, CSO reduction and protection of groundwater and lakes will cost 
about $3 billion. So one of the key management decisions still on the 
table is how we will allocate our limited resources. 
Even before the authority began its work, the department was taking steps 
to more effectively combat pollution. There was a perception the 
Department of Ecology just wasn't doing the job on enforcement. Many felt 
we weren't being rigorous enough in bringing industry and municipalities 
into compliance with our environmental laws. 
We took steps to change that. We increased emphasis upon taking timely 
and appropriate enforcement action. In addition, we sought, and the 
Legislature approved, measures to strengthen our enforcement efforts. 
More types of violations were made subject to civil penalties and the 
maximum amount of penalties was increased from $5,000 per violation per 
day to $10,000. 
156 
