Dog doo is killing Puget Sound, as are oil leaks, chemical fertilizers, and do-it-yourself car washes done with a garden hose in the driveway. So enough already. A coalition of more than 300 cities, counties, businesses, universities and other organizations on Wednesday launched an ad campaign called Puget Sound Starts Here, aimed once and for all to get this word out: Please, for the love of God, people. Start doing four basic things to help Puget Sound. We're even providing discount coupons to get you on board.
The campaign doesn't use those actual words, but it might as well.
To help ensure it captures people's attention in dog-crazy Seattle, its poster features Rover stating the following:
"I POOP. You pick it up. Any questions?"
So, herewith are the four easy things the campaign initially asks residents to do to reduce pollution from entering the Sound. The press release reads:
1. Take cars to a commercial car wash, where wash water is properly handled. Car wash water can kill fish and be as potentially toxic as some industrial wastewater discharges.
2. Fix car leaks, or place cardboard under the car in the short term to catch leaking oil or fluids.
3. Use compost – instead of fertilizers or pesticides – to grow a healthy lawn and garden.
4. Pick up pet waste with a bag – both in the yard and in public places – and place it in the trash.
“Puget Sound is dying, and many of us don’t realize that our own actions are contributing to its decline,” said David Dicks, director of the Puget Sound Partnership, in the press release. “The Puget Sound Starts Here campaign illustrates the severity of the problem and explains how each of us can be part of the solution by changing a few everyday activities. Everyone who lives in the Puget Sound region can make a difference.”
The bigger question, of course, is whether the government will begin to require relatively simple building techniques to help absorb the extraordinarily dirty water that pours off parking lots, sidewalks, roofs, streets and other hard city surfaces.
That is the greatest future threat to Puget Sound.
But we digress. The campaign also raises amazing factoids, as in this fact sheet:
THE BAD FACTS
FACT: On an average day, it’s estimated that 140,000 pounds of toxic chemicals – including petroleum, copper, lead, zinc and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) – enter Puget Sound.
Source: “Control of Toxic Chemicals in Puget Sound,” Washington State Department of Ecology, Phase 2: Development of Simple Numerical Models, 2008; www.ecy.wa.gov/Programs/wq/pstoxics/index.html
FACT: About 75 percent of the toxic chemicals entering the Sound are carried by stormwater runoff that flows off of paved roads and driveways, rooftops, yards and other developed land.
Source: “Control of Toxic Chemicals in Puget Sound,” Washington State Department of Ecology, Phase 2: Development of Simple Numerical Models, 2008; www.ecy.wa.gov/Programs/wq/pstoxics/index.html
FACT: Harbor seals in Puget Sound are seven times more contaiminated with the persistent toxic chemicals known as PCBs than those living in Canad’s Strait of Georgia, which adjoins the Sound.
Source: Cullon, D. L., S. J. Jefferies, P. Ross, 2005, “Persistent organic pollutants in the diet of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) inhabiting Puget Sound, Washington (USA), and the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia (Canada): a food basket approach,” Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 24 (10); pp. 2562–2572
FACT: Transient and southern resident orcas are considered to be among the most PCB-contaminated mammals on the planet.
Source: P. Ross person communications, 2009; Ross P.S., G. M. Ellis, M. G. Ikonomou, L. G. Barrett-Lennard and R.F. Addison, 2000, "High PCB Concentrations in Free-Ranging Pacific Killer Whales, Orcinus orca: Effects of Age, Sex and Dietary Preference," Marine Pollution Bulletin, Vol 40, 6: 504-515
FACT: 549 streams, rivers and lakes across the Puget Sound region are impaired by poor water quality.
Source: “Washington State's Water Quality Assessment [303(d)],” Washington State Department of Ecology,2008; www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/303d/
