J. Kirk Condyle, NRDCs

Long-legged Fly – The preferred prey of juvenile Chinook salmon

Placeholder for hatchery operations series

Shoreline destruction bit by bit

Impervious Surfaces and Polluted Runoff

Photo Credit: Paul Joseph Brown/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Habitat Loss

Tough Issues

• Nobody likes regulations, but voluntary actions aren’t even close to sufficient

• Nobody likes paying taxes or utility rates, but how else do we get public things done?

GAO’s recommendations

• Decision-making body• Hold responsible parties accountable• Link funding to outcomes• Independent, transparent tracking of

results

Schooling Sandlance – The most important forage fish for marine birds in Puget Sound

However, significant problems

are looming in

Puget Sound

Bacterial pollutionfrom failing septic tanks

People For Puget Sound

Mission: to protect and restore Puget Sound and the Northwest Straits--our living waters, the land and our common future.

Kelp greenling and California sea cucumber on rocky reef

Hugh Shipman, Washington Department of Ecology

Shoreline Habitat Destruction from Residential Development

Endangered: Southern Resident Orca Whales

Some 5700 acres of highly sediments in Puget Sound need clean-up.

Legacy Pollutants from past industrial practices

Mohsen Kourehdar, Washington Ecology, photo

Great Blue Heron

Continuing Toxic Discharges from stormwater re-contaminate cleaned up sites

Photo courtesy of Puget Soundkeeper Alliance

Opalescent nudibranch in eelgrass bed

Some 5 millions pounds of toxics are released annually to the air in Western Washington.

When it rains, they fall right back into Puget Sound!

NOAA photo library Endangered: Marbled murrelet

Harmful impacts from stormwater runoff:Undersized culverts disrupt fish passage and sediment transport

NOAA photo library Pigeon guillemot

Beggiotoa bacteria mat – an indicator of low dissolved oxygen

Which future will you choose?