Marine Sanctuary Expected To Need Congress Ok Compromise Would Put Puget Sound Proposal Before Lawmakers

Establishing a national marine sanctuary at the north end of Puget Sound would require congressional approval under compromise legislation Rep. Jack Metcalf expects will become law this year.

Metcalf’s proposal has the support of Sens. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., and should win Senate passage next week, the 2nd District Republican said Friday.

It would mark the first time that congressional action was required to approve a sanctuary designated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But Metcalf says the proposal for a Northwest Straits National Marine Sanctuary is unique because all the waters involved belong to the state. All existing marine sanctuaries are located at least partly in federal waters, he said.

The administration opposes the extra congressional oversight, but the mandate is included in a broader marine sanctuaries bill and President Clinton is unlikely to veto it over the Puget Sound language, aides to Metcalf and Murray said.

The sanctuary would include part of north Puget Sound and three straits - Haro Strait, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Georgia Strait - that separate the Washington mainland and Olympic Peninsula from Vancouver and Whidbey islands and the San Juans.

While it hasn’t been formally proposed, Congress instructed NOAA 10 years ago to consider such a designation. The Commerce Department agency took preliminary steps to prepare a draft environmental impact statement before running into local opposition in 1994.

Metcalf, whose northwest Washington district would be affected, initially proposed that sanctuary designations require approval of local governments with jurisdiction over the waters.

Murray and NOAA opposed that approach, he said.

“We don’t have any trouble with this approach. We prefer this,” Murray spokesman Rex Carney said Friday.

“If you build it right from the bottom up, congressional approval shouldn’t be a problem,” Carney said, though any formal designation likely is years away.

Metcalf said he doesn’t oppose a marine sanctuary in the region.

“What I oppose is doing it against the local government’s will,” he said Friday.

Efforts are under way to get the Senate Commerce Committee to consider the bill next week and send it to the Senate floor for final passage.

The House approved the overall sanctuary bill earlier this month.