Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire released final work plans last week for a project outlining the study and management of coastal resources on the Pacific West Coast, calling the project the West Coast Governor’s Agreement (WCGA) on Ocean Health.
The WCGA’s finalized implementation plans narrowed down the scope of the project’s lofty platitudes, such as “advance effective eco-system based management,” into specific actions, such as “employ commercial fishermen to remove 180 metric tons of derelict Dungeness crab pots and other fishing debris that is dangerous to fishing boats and marine life.”
Ocean health plans identified eight areas of issue: climate change, polluted run-off, marine debris, spartina eradication, renewable ocean energy, seafloor mapping, sediment management and ocean awareness and literacy.
WCGA coordinators emphasize their opposition to exploration and development of gas and oil off the coasts of the three states involved. WCGA spokesperson Jillian Schoene said Kulongoski made it clear he opposes dirty energy development in Oregon’s coastal waters.
“The governor recently reiterated his support of legislation that would ban any future production of gas and oil development off the coast. That’s what we don’t want,” she said.
The Oregon legislature supported an amendment to the American Power Act, which was Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman’s bill addressing climate change, which proposes a ban on offshore drilling on the entire West Coast in both federal and state waters. State water extends three miles from the shoreline, and Oregon already employs a ban on offshore drilling in state water. The federal legislation could protect waters up to 75 miles off the coast.
Some students support the idea, particularly in the context of the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
“I’m definitely in support of that. We don’t want to see oil rigs off of our coast and see them do tragic things, like what’s happened in the Gulf Coast,” University student Hans Johnson said. 
Other notable research the project intends to enact includes compiling information into a high-resolution map of the seafloor off of California, Oregon, and Washington by 2020, which will help with tsunami awareness and wave energy, according to the WCGA, and initiating a study to determine estimates for sea level rise on the West Coast, drawing predictions for the years 2030, 2050 and 2100.
Schoene said the ocean health alliance is the first of its kind on the West Coast, and that the project aligns well with federal planning efforts under the Obama administration’s Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, established in 2009.
In her work with WCGA, Schoene believes this is a critical moment to move toward alternative energy sources, which, she said, Oregon is leading the way on.
“We have worked really hard on alternative energy,” Schoene said. “The (national Wave Energy Research and Demonstration Center) is also located here in Oregon. We have a brain trust of the individuals here working to make wave energy a reality.”
The center is sponsored by Oregon State University.
In September 2006, Kulongoski joined Schwarzenegger and Gregoire in forming the three-state alliance, setting their combined resources to the work of researching, maintaining and restoring the health of the Pacific West Coast. In 2008, after two years of study and redrafts, the WCGA released a 116-page action plan disclosing their findings.
[email protected]