When we think of pollution we often think of some monolithic corporation driven mad by its pursuit of profit – belching smoke and slime into our air and water – robbing the community of a healthful environment.

When we hear that Puget Sound is sick with pollution, how many of us think of our homes, our lawns and our roads?

Today, our communities are the number one source of toxins entering Puget Sound.

Heavy metals from our tires and brakes; fertilizers and pesticides from our lawns; soap from the charity car wash… these are the things silently flowing down our storm drains and into Puget Sound.  This toxic mix is strangling Puget Sound.

You can help staunch this flow of toxins.  You can help save Puget Sound.

The Washington State Department of Ecology is now accepting public comments on its standards for “Low Impact Development” and its stormwater pollution permits.  If we help convince the state to adopt stronger standards, then we can abate the massive transfer of toxins from our communities into Puget Sound.

Low Impact Development (aka LID or Green Stormwater Infrastructure) is a method of development that enhances the ability of the earth to absorb polluted runoff from our streets, sidewalks and lawns.  It involves using things like rain gardens, vegetated rooftops, permeable pavement and trees to absorb the flow of rainwater.

Communities that act like sponges for rainwater slow the flow of toxins.  Once in the earth, soil bacteria and fungi can help degrade many of the toxins that are now flowing directly into our water and into our food chain.

Please ask the Department of Ecology to adopt strong standards to protect our region’s greatest resource – Puget Sound.

You can sign an online petition developed by People for Puget Sound.

You can also participate in the Department of Ecology’s public comment period.  Learn more at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/stormwater/municipal/2012Reissuance.html

Cate White

Puget Sound Starts Here‘s music video says it all:

Creating a poop-free Puget Sound is more important than you might think. According to King County, there are more than 200 tons of pet waste deposited in the Puget Sound region every day, and water runoff flushes some of it into streams, rivers and Puget Sound. Dog poop contains things like E. coli, Giardia and Roundworms – nasty stuff that we don’t want in Puget Sound. The very best thing you can do when walking your dog outside is to bring plastic bags, pick up the poop, and dispose of it in a trash can. Do not contaminate your compost with pet waste. This is one of those rare cases where throwing something away is one of the best options.  Alternatively, you can pick it up and flush it down your toilet.

Our fearless videographer, Laura James, captured the Tox-Ick Monster today at a pipe right off the swimming beach over on Alki.  Her report: “It’s huge and even today with light rains it was absolutely billowing.”

Remember: Don’t Feed the Monster!

To learn how to reduce polluted runoff, attend one of our upcoming events.

Contributed by Thorly James:

I love living within walking distance of Puget Sound – hearing the fog horns and gulls,
knowing there’s a chance I might see whales or seals.

I want to do what I can to protect this beautiful place. I’ve never been a community
activist, but now feel compelled in that direction. I’ve started bringing
a bag and gloves with me on my walks down to the beach. On my first day, just in the
street, there was enough trash (including lots of cigarette butts) to fill my bag before I had even walked a block from my house. I emptied it four times before I made it to the beach.

It got me wondering: what would motivate people; what do they need to know; and what would make it easier to staunch the flow of plastic into the ecosystem? Of the trash in the gyre now known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, eighty percent originated on land.

What can we do? Properly dispose of trash, and think of ways to generate less of it in the first place.

Many people think cigarette butts are small and harmless – after all, they look like they’re made of cotton. But they’re actually a kind of plastic called cellulose acetate. A used filter concentrates toxins which will leach out into water.

Plastics photodegrade – breaking into smaller and smaller pieces. We may not be able to see them, but they remain plastic molecules, many of which are hormone disruptors. Tiny pieces of plastic concentrate toxins and become poison pills eaten by fish and entering the foodchain.

Toxins and bits of trash from the streets – straws, cigarette butts, bottle caps, broken
plastic – all wash down the storm drains and (here in West Seattle) directly into Puget
Sound.

It can take years, but currents carry trash out to the North Pacific Gyre. The plastic that
floats is mistaken for food by seabirds. Chicks starve to death with their stomachs full of
plastic bottle caps and lighters.

Some thoughts:

Have you heard of the pocket ashtray? Studies have shown that if ash receptacles are
available, cigarette litter will be reduced. Could some cigarette tax money go to pay for
purchase (and maintenance) of ash receptacles in public places? Perhaps pocket ashtrays could come packaged with cigarettes?

How about a plastic bottle and plastic lid deposit fee? More problematic because of
potential cleanliness and health issues, what about a cigarette filter/butt deposit?

Want more info? http://preventcigarettelitter.org/
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/slideshows/travel-outdoors/chris-jordan-midway-
birds.html

Do you have some ideas or want to help me launch a litter reduction campaign? Please
contact me at lovelylorax@gmail.com