Water Quality

Puget Sound water quality concerns include the impacts of toxic substances, nutrients, and pathogens on freshwater and marine resources. Also of concern are regulations and programs that deal with stormwater and wastewater.

For the past 100 years, people have introduced a wide array of chemicals into the Puget Sound environment. Many of these chemicals are poisonous and cause health problems for people, plants and animals.

The more persistent chemicals have settled into the mud and sediments on the bottom of the Sound. Scientists have also found evidence of toxic chemicals such as PCBs in the tissues of living organisms. PCBs pass through the food web from tiny zooplankton through chinook salmon to seals and orcas. 

Rain is a part of life in the Pacific Northwest . Stormwater runoff is rain (or snowmelt) that flows off developed land—such as roads, parking areas, rooftops and lawns—into nearby streams, rivers and Puget Sound . Runoff enters these waterbodies either directly or through drainage systems.

Stormwater runoff poses a high risk to the health of Puget Sound by causing two major problems.