FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington Public Ports Association recognizes the Port of Port Townsend with 2025 Community Engagement Award
SPOKANE, Washington – Every year, the Washington Public Ports Association (WPPA) recognizes ports across the state for their extraordinary accomplishments in the categories of job creation, community engagement, creative partnership, and environmental stewardship.
This year, the WPPA is pleased to honor the Port of Port Townsend with our Community Engagement Award for their Point Hudson Breakwater Project. This award recognizes the creativity and community spirit demonstrated by port staff in ensuring that their major in-water infrastructure project minimizes disruption on the marine environment, while also being well- understood, accessible, and even visible to members of the community.
The Port of Port Townsend’s breakwater reconstruction was essential to protecting and preserving historic Point Hudson and has long been a priority for the port and the maritime community in Jefferson County and the beyond. To make the project possible, the port took a partnership approach to engagement with its state and federal regulators – and emphasized community through its sea creature relocation and public underwater camera.
The community voted to approve the development of the project when it approved the Port’s Industrial Development District Levy in 2019. But the port did not take that as sufficient to ensure community support – they collaborated with the Port Townsend Marine Science Center to provide training for divers on relocating the marine wildlife under the breakwater, along with the Washington SCUBA Alliance and the Octopus Gardens Dive Shop, among many others.
Even as construction crews drove in new pilings, and work extended from 2022 to 2024, the port received zero community complaints, a testament to the work the port commission and staff put in to sharing the details of the project in advance and throughout.
The port’s actions demonstrate its focus on and responsiveness to its community, and WPPA is pleased to recognize the Port of Port Townsend as the 2025 Community Engagement Award winner.
To view the Point Hudson Camera livestreaming, visit
https://www.youtube.com/@PortofPortTownsendStreaming
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As a nonprofit trade association representing Washington’s independent port districts and their partners, the Washington Public Ports Association (WPPA) fosters public policy that supports our members and helps them execute their community-supported goals. The WPPA was charged by the Legislature in 1961 with acting as the coordinating agency for public port districts throughout Washington, serving as the focus through which ports work cooperatively to develop policy direction, share information, and address issues on economic development, trade, transportation, and environmental stewardship. Public port districts offer a wide range of locally governed services, including the operation of marine terminals and barge facilities, tourism promotion, development of industrial parks, management of public access points, marinas, airports, railroads, and more.
Contact: Eric ffitch, Executive Director
360-763-1179 cell
effitch@washingtonports.org
