Puget Sound a toxic stew, scientists say
Residents, business, government all to blame, forum told
Fireproof salmon, fish dosed with anti-depressants and shellfish tainted with amnesia-causing toxins can all be found in Puget Sound, researchers said Wednesday at a public forum.
"People need to be mad as hell about this situation, but they aren't," said Brad Ack, head of the Puget Sound Action Team, a government agency. "We haven't gotten the message across."
Scientists gave sweeping overviews of the countless ways residents, businesses and government entities have fouled the Sound. They explained to the hundreds of people in attendance at Seattle's Town Hall how contaminants washing off our roads, being flushed down our toilets and dumped in oil spills are harming marine life and humans.
Chinook caught in the state's inland sea are contaminated with levels of PCBs -- polychlorinated biphenyls -- up to six times higher than fish from the Columbia and Sacramento rivers and along the east side of Vancouver Island. The chinook are also packing away flame retardants added to a wide range of consumer products, state scientists reported. Both can hurt people as well as wild creatures.
Part of the challenge comes from the region's geography. The Sound is long and deep, but shallow at the northern end like a bathtub, limiting flushing with ocean water.
When pollution is dumped, "there's this big recycling," said Sandra O'Neill, a fish contamination expert with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. "Once it's here, it stays in the Sound."
Bottom line: It's crucial to curtail the flow of pollution in the first place, experts said.
Continue reading this article from the Seattle P-I:
Puget Sound a toxic stew, scientists say
