Toxics in Puget Sound Work Group
Puget Sound is both a jewel of the Northwest and a toxic soup of chemical pollutants. Toxic chemicals used in consumer products and industrial processes, as well as pollution from oil spills, motor vehicles, and burning fossil fuels have been contaminating the Puget Sound basin for decades.
Toxics in Puget Sound contaminate our food web and impact human health. They threaten the health of wildlife in the Sound and the health of the entire ecosystem.
Like humans, Orcas are at the top of the food web. Endangered Orcas in Puget Sound have high levels of PCBs, PBDEs, and other toxic chemicals in their blood.
Saving the Sound by 2020
Imagine a clean and healthy Puget Sound teeming
with healthy wildlife and sustained by healthy residents who are stewards
of its land and waters.
That's the vision of the Puget Sound Initiative put forth by Governor
Christine Gregoire last December, a vision to be achieved by the year
2020. It's a vision that leaders of the Toxic-Free Legacy Coalition strongly
support. It's a
vision that will require all the public and private support we can muster,
much hard work, many dollars, and lots of political leadership and will.
Environmental organizations around the Puget Sound, including members of the TFL Coalition, worked together to give strong, clear, constructive recommendations to the Governor's Puget Sound Partnership. Actions to remove persistent toxics from the Puget Sound environment are part of the final recommendations.
Immediate Action Recommendation from the Puget Sound Partnership, December 2006 - Accelerate Control and Cleanup of Toxic Pollution
1. Accelerate the cleanup of in-water sites and upland sites within one-half mile of Puget Sound. The first priority
for the use of Model Toxics Control Account funds should be to complete the cleanup of these sites in a timely
and protective manner.
2. Prevent catastrophic oil spills by stationing a year-round tug at Neah Bay.
3. Implement a comprehensive strategy to prevent, reduce, and control the release of toxics into the environment. This will include providing safe alternatives, improved treatment, and chemical use reduction and phaseout. This recommendation includes support of the phase-out of PBDEs (flame retardants that bio-accumulate), provided there are safe alternatives that meet applicable fire safety standards. learn about our PBDE campaign>
4. Provide financial assistance for water reuse projects to reduce demand on potable water supply, to help control
toxic, nutrient, and pathogen discharges and to help keep water in rivers and streams.
5. Rigorously assess the amounts and sources of toxic pollution from water and air entering Puget Sound so that prevention and cleanup actions can be prioritized to address critical problems.
See complete recommendations in the
Puget Sound Partnership's Report
Resources:
Toxics in Puget Sound - report from the Puget Sound Action Team
view a short interactive presentation by the Seattle P-I "Puget Sound pollutants come from all directions"
click to view Flash
Work Group Leader(s):
Heather Trim, People for Puget Sound, htrim@pugetsound.org
or contact Margaret Shield, Coalition Coordinator at mshield@toxicfreelegacy.org or (206) 632-1545 ext 123.
See the following press coverage related to the problem of toxic contamination of Puget Sound.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer six-part series, October 2006.
The Sound of Broken Promises
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/specials/
brokenpromises/
Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Chemicals tainting orcas' dinner
More PBDEs seen; adults often share fish with young
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/
265582_orca05.html
Thursday, April 6, 2006
Babies' Health: Ban chemicals
Seattle P-I Editorial: New concerns about chemicals in the diet of endangered
orcas underline a sad fact of the 2006 legislative session. Lawmakers already
knew enough to ban some strong chemicals but failed to act.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/
265622_toxiced.html
