Numbers Prove It

On an average day, it’s estimated that 140,000 pounds of toxic chemicals – including petroleum, copper, lead, zinc, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) – enter Puget Sound.
About 75% of the toxic chemicals getting to the Sound are carried by stormwater that runs off paved roads and driveways, rooftops, yards and other developed land.
549 streams, rivers and lakes across the Puget Sound region suffer from poor water quality.
Transient and southern resident [orcas] are considered to be “among the most PCB-contaminated mammals on the planet.”
Harbor seals in Puget Sound are seven times more contaminated with the persistent toxic chemicals known as PCBs than those living in Canada’s Strait of Georgia, which adjoins the Sound.