Scientists: Puget Sound species in decline as pollution increases

Scientists gathered Wednesday to share their latest research on what ails South Sound, painting a picture of a shallow, poorly circulating water body with a host of pollution problems on the rise and many species in decline.

The research presented at the South Sound Science Symposium sobered the crowd of 400. It also drove home the fact that the root causes of a South Sound ecosystem out of whack are not fully understood.

Population growth and all of its trappings — including polluted stormwater runoff, nitrogen and bacteria loads from human and animal waste and habitat loss — seem to lurk behind many of the signs of an unhealthy Sound, the science suggested.

Preliminary studies suggest that more than half of the toxic chemicals delivered to South Sound come from stormwater runoff that originates from urban areas, noted Puget Sound Partnership toxics reduction program manager Scott Redman.

He said the waters of South Sound, defined as the inlets south and west of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, receive an estimated 4,200 tons of petroleum products via stormwater runoff each year.

"Those facts alone justify programs to better manage stormwater," Redman said.

All that oil oozing into South Sound makes a strong case for a vehicle-testing program to detect and require repairs of oil leaks, said Bill Dewey, a spokesman for Taylor Shellfish, the region's largest commercial shellfish-growing company.

Shoreline

South Sound has 450 miles of shoreline, a distance equivalent to driving from Tacoma to Missoula, Mont., said Tom Mumford, a state Department of Natural Resources marine scientist. Thirty-five percent to 40 percent of that shoreline has been altered in some way, often by the construction of bulkheads.

Hardening of the shoreline disrupts the near-shore habitat and the marine life that lives, feeds and seeks sanctuary there.

Floating kelp beds have all but disappeared from South Sound, but at least 24 invasive species have arrived in recent years.

"There are quite a few, and a bunch more are coming," Mumford said.

The only way in and out of South Sound for water and marine species is the stretch of water beneath the Narrows Bridge. Slow to flush, it takes 56 days for South Sound to fill with a fresh supply of water and seven days, on average, for Budd Inlet to flush, said Skip Albertson, a state Department of Ecology engineer.

Nitrogen levels in the Deschutes River are on the rise, and oxygen levels at the bottom of center Budd Inlet are in decline. Both trends are ominous signs for marine life. "The loads of human waste are significant," Ecology environmental engineer Mindy Roberts said of South Sound water-quality woes.

Decline of species

Species in decline include coho salmon, herring and certain marine bird species. Species on the rise include toxic algae, anchovy and chum salmon.

"I think things are changing," said Duane Fargergren, who has lived on Totten Inlet in Mason County for 60 years.

Most of the research projects presented Wednesday were conducted in isolation. But sharing all of the information should help to build a South Sound recovery plan that either folds into the work of Puget Sound Partnership or can stand alone, Dewey said.

Puget Sound Partnership is a new state agency assembled to build the road map to a healthy Puget Sound by 2020.

"This is our last good chance to protect Puget Sound," partnership Executive Director David Dicks said in a morning address to the crowd.

"Saving Puget Sound is on the national political radar screen now. It wasn't two or three years ago."