OLYMPIA, Washington, November 10, 2008 (ENS) – Each year, 52 million pounds of toxic chemicals – nearly 150,000 pounds per day – inundate Puget Sound with contaminated runoff. This amounts to a toxic spill the size of Exxon Valdez every two years, according to the Puget Sound Partnership, a community effort of governments, tribes, scientists and businesses working together to restore and protect the Sound.

The toxic chemicals include oil and petroleum products, lead, and phthalates – and one million pounds of toxic metals such as zinc and copper. These metals, despite being released in lower concentrations than oil and petroleum, can harm threatened salmon species.

“These disturbing numbers are putting more than 40 species in Puget Sound at risk, including the Sound’s orca population, where we just saw a decline of nearly 10 percent in the past several months,” said the Partnership’s Executive Director David Dicks.

The Puget Sound Partnership Thursday released a draft Action Agenda for protecting, restoring and cleaning up Puget Sound, which encompasses the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area, home to about five million people.

Puget Sound as seen from the Seattle
Space Needle (Photo credit unknown)

The draft Action Agenda recommends using “a comprehensive and integrated approach to managing urban stormwater and rural surface water runoff.”

“By protecting the last remaining intact places, problems can be prevented before they occur, which is the best and most cost-effective approach to restoring ecosystem health,” the draft agenda states.

Among other measures, it would establish and maintain locally coordinated, effective on-site sewage system management to reduce pollutant loading to vulnerable surface waters.

It would prevent pollutants from being introduced into Puget Sound ecosystems in the first place, and to deal with contaminants already in the Sound it would prioritize and implement projects to clean up toxic contamination in water and upland areas.

If the draft agenda is adopted, it would protect and conserve stream flows for natural system and human uses and focus growth away from ecologically important and sensitive areas by encouraging dense, compact cities and vital rural communities.

“Human activities have vastly altered the ecosystem during the past 150 years,” the draft agenda states. “Restoration efforts need to bring large portions of river, wetland and marine systems back to life.”

Under the plan, the Partnership would implement and maintain priority ecosystem restoration projects for marine, nearshore, estuary, freshwater riparian and uplands.

It would revitalize waterfront communities while enhancing marine and freshwater shoreline environments and increase private landowners’ ability to undertake restoration projects.

New analysis supporting the draft Action Agenda identifies some “alarming” facts and trends related to the health of Puget Sound, said Dicks.

Two pollution reports, “Pollutant Loadings for Surface Runoff and Roadways” and “Improved Estimates of Loadings from Dischargers of Municipal and Industrial Wastewater,” confirm the state’s previous findings that surface runoff is the main pathway of the toxic chemicals getting into the Sound.

The primary sources of toxics to Puget Sound are the day-to-day activities of people, as the population grows and land gets more and more developed.

The estimates are based on current knowledge about toxic pollutants from surface runoff, air deposition, wastewater from discharge pipes, direct spills into the water and combined sewer/stormwater overflows only.

The reports, and a summary document, can be found online at www.ecy.wa.gov

The draft Action Agenda is subject to a public comment period that ends on November 20.

For convenience, an online “open house” has been added to the Partnership’s website for collecting comments: www.psp.wa.gov.

In addition, two public meetings, both beginning at 9 am, will be held this month to solicit feedback:

* Nov. 11: Embassy Suites Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Triple Crown Ballroom, 15920 W. Valley Highway, Seattle
* Nov. 21: Edmonds Conference Center

The Partnership’s Leadership Council will adopt the final Action Agenda on December 1 at a Sound-wide celebration event in Seattle.

“The Action Agenda is the best chance we have to repair the damage to Puget Sound and ensure we leave a legacy of a clean and healthy Puget Sound for our children and grandchildren,” Dicks said. “Success truly depends on all of us coming together and being a part of the solution.”

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OLYMPIA, Washington, July 14, 2008 (ENS) – The Washington Department of Ecology is seeking help from the general public in drafting regulations on the collection and use of rainwater in Washington State.

Members of the public will have an opportunity to learn about rainwater collection and to discuss a new statewide rule on Wednesday, July 16, 2008, in Aberdeen, where the fourth in a series of workshops being held around the state is scheduled.

The open house will begin at 6 pm at Aberdeen High School, The Commons, 410 North G. Street in Aberdeen.

“A statewide rule would remove ambiguity about rainwater collection from existing water law,” said Brian Walsh, the Department of Ecology’s policy and planning manager for water resources. “We want to ensure that collection and storage of rainwater happens in a way that is consistent with protecting stream flows and water rights.”

The Department of Ecology does not require homeowners to obtain water right permits to collect and store small amounts of rainwater. The new rule would, for the first time, define how much rainwater can be collected and used before a permit is required.

The Seattle Space Needle in the
rain (Photo by Samir Diwan)

Under state law, rainwater is considered a water resource of the state. To use the waters of the state, an individual or group is required to get permission from the Department of Ecology in the form of a water right permit.

The state agency wants public comment on what the threshold should be for requiring a water right permit for those systems that could affect the water supply of senior water right holders or stream flows in some river basins.

The impact of rainwater collection systems depends on their size, location, the number of systems in a particular area, and the amount of water already appropriated in a basin.

Residential rainwater collection systems range from a 50 gallon rain barrel to cisterns of 30,000 gallons or more. Commercial systems can be larger.

In water-short areas like the San Juan Islands, rainwater may be the sole source of water for some homeowners.

The Department of Ecology is especially interested in encouraging rainwater collection in urban areas like Puget Sound where it can be used to reduce stormwater runoff and supplement municipal water supplies.

The new rule will not affect the regional rainwater permit recently obtained by the City of Seattle, or future island-wide permits in San Juan County.

The Seattle Public Utilities, SPU, water permit allows capture and use rainwater of collected from rooftops that would otherwise enter Seattle’s sewer system, be conveyed to a treatment plant and discharged via a deep marine outfall.

The rainwater that will be captured under this permit would not otherwise end up in Lake Washington or other freshwater bodies, except during combined sewer overflow events.

Rainwater harvesting systems established under this permit will not be connected to the public water supply system operated and maintained by the Seattle Public Utilities.

But SPU says the implementation of this permit will benefit the public water supply system by reducing the demand for drinkable water that is currently used for other purposes such as irrigation for gardens, watering lawns, and toilet flushing.

It may also benefit Seattle’s sewage collection system by lowering storm flows into the sewer system.

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WASHINGTON, DC, June 30, 2008 (ENS) – The Washington state Congressional delegation has introduced legislation in the House and the Senate that would be a new source of grant funding for water quality and stormwater discharge projects in the Puget Sound area of northwest Washington.

Congressman Norm Dicks and Senator Maria Cantwell introduced the Puget Sound Recovery Act of 2008 on Wednesday, which will establish a distinct office within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to coordinate the expanded efforts to address pollution impacts on Puget Sound.

“As the nation’s second largest estuary, Puget Sound has a regional impact affecting four million area residents and sustaining a broad array of aquatic species,” said Dicks, who serves as the chairman of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee.

In that post, Dicks has spearheaded a new effort in recent years to increase the funding for research and remedial actions around Puget Sound, in coordination with the Washington state’s newly formed Puget Sound Partnership, a community effort of citizens, governments, tribes, scientists and businesses to restore and protect Puget Sound.

Puget Sound as seen from the
Seattle Space Needle (Photo
courtesy Wikipedia)

The Puget Sound Region is centered on Seattle and Tacoma and consists of nine counties, four satellite cities, and two major ports.

The Puget Sound Recovery Act, H.R. 6364, would amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to provide assistance for programs and activities to protect the water quality of Puget Sound.

The bill would establish a Puget Sound office within the EPA that would have oversight responsibility for the cleanup actions on the Sound, including the development of a comprehensive action plan. The bill also authorizes grants to local communities to study the causes of water quality problems.

In addition, it authorizes grants for targeted remedial actions to counter these threats, as well as grants for sewer and stormwater discharge projects.

“Puget Sound is one of the most important waterways in the United States and is critical for the health of Washington’s economy and environment,” said Senator Cantwell. “However, the declining health of the Sound is putting this at risk.”

“By taking this step to help protect Puget Sound, we are helping the four million Americans who benefit from recreational and environmental opportunities, supporting $20 billion in economic activity annually,” the senator said.

Building upon Puget Sound cleanup efforts already underway at the local and state levels, the increased federal response authorized by the Puget Sound Recovery Act will be a model of scientific integrity, coordination between federal, state, local and tribal governments, and demonstrable achievement that is transparent and open to public scrutiny.

Area congressional representatives from the Puget Sound region – Representatives Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen, Brian Baird, Jim McDermott, Dave Reichert, and Adam Smith – all have joined as original co-sponsors of the legislation in the House.

The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Senator Patty Murray of Washington has co-sponsored the Senate version of the bill.

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BELLEVUE, Washington, May 23, 2008 (ENS) – Cruise ships that visit Seattle under a 2004 environmental agreement will take new precautions to help protect commercial and tribal shellfish beds from virus contamination.

All three parties to the Memorandum of Understanding regarding Cruise Ship Operations – Department of Ecology, the Port of Seattle, and the NorthWest CruiseShip Association – approved the amendment earlier this week.

The protections follow recommendations issued in a report by the Washington Department of Health late last year. The study found that the wastewater treatment systems used on ships operating under the agreement protect the shellfish beds, but recommended additional safety measures to ensure appropriate water quality levels.

The amendment to the agreement provides that the ships will not discharge treated wastewater within half a mile of commercial or tribal shellfish beds.

A cruise ship passes by the Seattle
Space Needle (Photo credit unknown)

By the 2009 cruise season, ships will install real-time monitors to detect problems with their wastewater disinfection systems, and will immediately stop discharging if those systems do not meet performance standards.

Beginning in 2008, discharges will be stopped if more than two percent of the people on board are suffering from any type of diarrheal illness.

Cruise ships will immediately report wastewater disinfection problems to the state Department of Health.

“These changes add an important dimension to the cruise ship agreement’s clean water protections,” said Kelly Susewind, who manages Ecology’s water quality program.

“Wastewater treatment – whether on cruise ships or treatment plants on shore – plays a big role in protecting Puget Sound and its shellfish resources,” Susewind said.

The cruise ship agreement prohibits wastewater discharges from NorthWest CruiseShip Association member ships unless the vessels have advanced wastewater treatment systems, certified by the Department of Ecology.

Ships must submit regular reports on those systems to the agency and allow agency personnel to conduct on-board inspections.

The NorthWest CruiseShip Association represents the nine major cruise lines that call at Port of Seattle terminals during the spring-through-fall Alaska cruise season. The Port expects 211 cruise ship calls this season.

The MOU agreement supports the broader Puget Sound Initiative – a comprehensive effort by local, tribal, state and federal governments, business, agricultural and environmental interests, scientists, and the public to restore and protect the Sound, including the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Thousands of acres of commercial shellfish beds in Puget Sound already are closed because the clams, mussels and oysters are contaminated by bacteria, making them unsafe to eat.

On May 1, the state Department of Health issued a warning that pollution threatens shellfish harvesting in 17 of the state’s commercial shellfish growing areas.

“Washington is a national shellfish leader, and while shellfish are vital to our state economy the growing areas also serve as a barometer of the health of our Puget Sound and coastal waters,” said Washington Secretary of Health Mary Selecky. “We’re seeing progress, but big challenges remain as we work to restore a healthy environment to the waters of the coast and around the Sound.”

To view the complete MOU agreement, including amendments and other information, click here [www.ecy.wa.gov].

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