CITY OF DES MOINES SHORELINE MASTER PROGRAM

Des Moines Shoreline Master Program
Every two years the PSAT partnership develops a plan to guide their work. The 2005-2007 plan
provides a total of $182 million dollars funded through state agency budgets to address eight
priority areas:
• Clean up contaminated sites and sediments;
• Reduce continuing toxic contamination and prevent future contamination;
• Reduce the harm from stormwater runoff;
• Prevent nutrient and pathogen pollution caused by human and animal wastes;
• Hood Canal: a geographic priority for 2005-2007;
• Protect shorelines and other critical areas that provide important ecological functions;
• Restore degraded nearshore and freshwater habitats; and
• Conserve and recover orca, salmon, forage fish, and groundfish (PSAT, 2005).
4.4.2 Puget Sound Nearshore Project (PSNP)
The Puget Sound Nearshore Project (PNSP) (also referred to as the Puget Sound Nearshore
Ecosystem Restoration Project (PSNERP)) is a large-scale, multi-agency initiative to address
habitat restoration needs in the Puget Sound basin. Nearshore Project goals are to identify
significant ecosystem problems, evaluate potential solutions, and restore and preserve critical
nearshore habitat. The PSRP represents a partnership between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
(Corps), state and federal government organizations, Indian tribes, industries and environmental
organizations.
A General Investigation Reconnaissance Study conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
in 2000 (USACOE, 2000) identified a direct link between healthy nearshore habitat and the
physical condition of the shoreline. The study identified several actions that would be central in
restoring nearshore processes to a more natural state:
• Providing marshes, mudflats, and beaches with essential sand and gravel materials;
• Removing, moving and modifying artificial structures (bulkheads, riprap, dikes, tide
gates, etc.);
• Using alternative measures to protect shorelines from erosion and flooding; and
• Restoring estuaries and nearshore habitat such as eelgrass beds and kelp beds (USACOE,
2000; PSNP, 2002).
The PSNERP also provides outreach and guidance materials related to nearshore ecosystem
restoration principals, concepts, and methods of implementation.
Department of Ecology approval effective November 1, 2010
36 Adopted by City of Des Moines Ordinance No. 1502