SEATTLE – So it’s been raining for 27 days. Where does all that water go?
The rain falls on rooftops and sidewalks and streets, on fields, golf courses and lawns, on park lands and play fields, on forests and industrial sites. It mixes with oil, pesticides and any number of other nasty substances.
Then much of the water finds its way into area lakes and streams – many of them salmon-bearing – and eventually into Puget Sound.
“Storm water is a source of pollution, because there are pollutants in our environment that the storm water picks up and conveys through the system,” state Ecology Department spokesman Larry Altose said Friday.
Saturday was the 27th consecutive rainy day here – six days away from the 33-day record set in 1953. “That’s why you’re starting to see storm-water controls become part of our municipal infrastructure.”
Industry, septic tanks and manure-rich dairies are not the only polluters putting salmon runs and orcas at risk.
Look in the mirror for the source of “nonpoint pollution.” Cars leak fluids. Homeowners use pesticides to ensure velvety lawns. Pet owners walk the dog and leave the droppings where they fall.
“It’s everybody’s turn,” said Fred Felleman of Ocean Advocates. “It’s about caring for your car so it doesn’t leak oil, using organic alternatives in the garden.”
Runoff used to be an issue primarily for lakes and other smaller bodies of water, he noted. Now Hood Canal and Puget Sound are at risk as the population booms.
“We each, in our very small ways – multiplied by the millions of us – are contributing to the overall pollution of our waters,” Altose said.
There’s also persistent pollution from way back. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, once used in electrical transmitters and banned since the 1970s, still show up in top-of-the-food-chain critters such as orcas – and humans.
“There are compounds used in everyday life that we might not be aware of – elements of plastics that we use are found in storm-water sediments, for example – that are finding their way into our bodies of water and … into us and other creatures,” Altose said.
Cities are making headway in coping with heavy rainfall, but combined sewage and storm-water flows still gush into Puget Sound and the Duwamish River from the greater Seattle area. Improved systems help reduce overflows of raw sewage, Altose said, eliminating a certain “ambiance” that used to be an inevitable byproduct of heavy rain.
Most of the sewage has undergone at least basic treatment before its release.
“There’s raw sewage in there, but it’s really diluted,” said King County wastewater treatment spokesman Gary Larson. At the same time, “we don’t recommend swimming in any of these areas.”
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