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Stormwater runoff: A flood of crud

parking lot trashWould we drink the water flowing along the sides of our roads and in ourstormdrains? What’s in it anyway? Where does it go? Laura James did a great job of highlighting these questions with some video showing some of West Seattle’s crud entering Puget Sound underwater.That gunky water carries a wide variety of stuff, from discarded packaging to:

Oil, grease and heavy metals such as copper than come from cars and trucks.
Household chemicals, including pesticides.
Nutrients such as nitrogen from fertilizers.
Bacteria, such as fecal coliform from pet waste. See the rest of this story and some of Laura’s video at: KPLU

Laura has been calling attention to this issue, and some of the larger local media outlets have picked up her story.

dog poop posterSee additional coverage at:

What can we do about this?  Especially when funding is so tight it squeaks?  If it wasn’t obvious from the coverage above, here is one suggestion, and more can be found at PugetSoundStartsHere.org

Oct. 19, 2012: Laura James continues to call attention to the polluted stormwater flowing into Puget Sound, and she continues to provide amazing video footage of it. Here are links to a couple of recent TV spots showing her and her work on Seattle’s KOMO News and Oregon Public Broadcasting.

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