It is estimated that 75 percent of contamination in the Puget Sound is unwittingly produced by citizens — via commercial wastewater, sewage treatment plants, stormwater runoff from roads and paved surfaces, construction and other activities.
Puget Sound Partnership, an alliance of hundreds of concerned citizens and organizations, including WSU Extension, is attacking the problem in an effort to revitalize the Sound, including the streams and rivers feeding into it. From Puyallup to Bremerton, Port Townsend to Everett, WSU Extension and research centers are immersed in this effort.
“We have invisible problems,” says Chrys Bertolotto, natural resource programs manager at the Washington State University Snohomish County Extension office in Everett.
Indeed, the region’s rich natural resources have attracted a booming population complete with homes, schools, industry, and the inevitable waste products they generate. Much of it, unfortunately, ends up in the Sound. At least 63,000 pounds of toxic chemicals each day.
See article by Rebecca Phillips in Washington State Magazine.