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Find comprehensive services, news, information and data related to the Puget Sound marine environment and ecology and the work of King County, Washington to restore and protect it.

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Puget Sound Marine Services and Information

Puget Sound marine topics

More than 25,000 pounds of unwanted medicines were disposed of through the Pharmaceuticals Take Back Project in the last two years (2010).

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Puget Sound marine life photos
View a photo collection of marine plants and animals including pictures of Puget Sound fish, invertebrates, and algae.

Environmental indicators for marine habitat
Learn about the condition of King County's marine habitat (waters, shorelines and sediments), key influencing factors, King County actions, and how you can help.

Puget Sound Partnership (external link)
Public/private group working to develop an aggressive 15-year plan to solve Puget Sound's most vexing problems.

Puget Sound Rain Gardens (external link)
Rain gardens filter pollution from stormwater and support unusual native plants, and WSU has set a goal for register 12,000 rain gardens in the Puget Sound basin:

Puget Sound rockfish Endangered Species Act listing (external link)
Find news, federal register notice, studies and findings provided by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service.

Saltwater shorelines, Life on the Edge video series Includes Video
Watch a video that describes what affects Puget Sound beaches and their habitat, with ideas that beachgoers and shoreline property owners may like to apply to help preserve the quality of saltwater beaches and their ecosystems.

History of King County's regional wastewater treatment utility
Read how our region worked to keep our lakes and Puget Sound clean and healthy, including the early days of sewage treatment and disposal in King County, the birth of Metro and development of regional facilities to process the waste produced by our metropolitan area.

Artist's rendering of King County's Brightwater Treatment Plant Brightwater treatment project
Modern plant and conveyance system located on a 114-acre site next to Route 9 near Woodinville, serving sewer customers in north King and south Snohomish counties.

Combined Sewer Overflow Control Program
During heavy rainstorms, our combined sewers may exceed their capacity and the mixture of untreated sewage and stormwater is allowed to overflow into Puget Sound and other waters to keep it from backing up into homes and businesses. Learn how King County is working to improve our system to control overflows.

King County Climate Change Plan
How King County seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to projected climate change impacts, and embed mitigation and adaptation into county policy decisions. The plan incorporates issues, goals and actions related to coastal areas.

Coastal Areas breakout session results, King County Climate Change Conference
Review a summary report describing anticipated affects of global warming on coastal lands in Washington State with proposed adaptation strategies. Also, look up the coastal area session agenda, presentations, and speaker credentials and biographies.

King County Sound Tips 10 Steps to Help Save the Sound King County and Puget Sound Tips
Learn what you can do to protect Puget Sound. This brochure is one of King County's contributions as a member of the Puget Sound Partnership, which is beginning work on a 15-year plan to protect and restore the Sound. King County works to safeguard Puget Sound, protect human health and enrich the region's quality of life.

Shoreline Master Program
Learn about King County's program to protect shorelines on Puget Sound, large lakes and major rivers.

Sea star identification key
Identify common Intertidal "starfish" of Puget Sound.

Juvenile salmonid composition, timing, distribution, and diet in marine nearshore waters of Central Puget Sound in 2001-2002
Scientific report essential for protecting Puget Sound salmon from extinction and to recover depleted salmon stocks.

Marine shoreline inventory report
Inventory of selected shoreline habitat features that support juvenile salmonids, presented in part using high-resolution aerial photos with overlays that classify habitat types.

Inventory and assessment of current and historic beach feeding sources/erosion and accretion areas for the marine shorelines of Water Resource Inventory Areas 8 and 9

Endocrine disrupting chemicals in the environment
Learn about these natural and synthetic chemicals flushed daily into our marine waters, and discover what King County is doing to protect public health and the environment as the science and our understanding of endocrine disruptors develops.

State of the nearshore report
It's no surprise that human impacts have caused big trouble for the marine shoreline environment in King County, but a new first-of-its-kind report released September 5, 2001 is helping to crystallize the extent of the problem.

Sediment remediation projects
Cleanup of contaminated sites in the Duwamish Waterway and Elliott Bay to enhance and restore habitat for aquatic life.

Elliot Bay nearshore substrate enhancement
A status report on a project to restore nearshore habitat by placing cobble, quarry spall, pea gravel and oyster shell at sites near the Duwamish Head and Seacrest.

Central Puget Sound watershed
Info in King County about Puget Sound and the creek drainages that drain directly to it.

Environmental Laboratory
Collects samples from marine waters, lakes, rivers, biosolids application sites, industries and wastewater treatment plants, and analyzes samples in one of several labs including trace metals, organics, conventionals, microbiology and aquatic toxicology labs.

Beach Assessment Program
A report of volunteer marine life surveys conducted at King County beaches.

Combined sewer overflow water quality assessment: Duwamish River and Elliott Bay

Beyond the beach: Learn about the nearshore environment and what you can do to help protect it from damage.

Learn about the Puget Sound nearshore environment from this illustrated presentation:

Learn about the Puget Sound nearshore environment

Puget Sound marine monitoring
Authoritative source for water quality monitoring data, scientific studies, and marine restoration projects in Central Puget Sound waters of King County.
Marine Monitoring Reports: 1997, 1998, 1999 -2000, 2001, 2002-2003, 2004, 2005-2007

Related information

Related agencies

News and announcements

Puget Sound starts here
King County continues its commitment to safeguard Puget Sound and protect human health by joining forces with the newly organized Puget Sound Starts Here campaign.

Puget Sound Partnership on Facebook (external link)
King County WTD, a Clean-Water Agency Facebook (external link)

Feb. 5, 2012
External opinion, Seattle Times
Promote clean water with green infrastructure

Feb. 1, 2012
Meeting provides green stormwater infrastructure project updates, Feb. 8

2010-2012 Midterm Report (pdf)
King County Executive Dow Constantine

Jan. 13, 2012
King County hosts upcoming meetings on South Magnolia CSO project, Jan. 21 & Feb 15
Project staff to share technical information, overview of construction

Jan. 13, 2012
Meeting offers updates on North Beach sewer improvement project, Jan. 25
Project staff to discuss siting and design decisions, answer questions

Jan. 6, 2012
External release, WDFW
Fishing in rivers around Puget Sound to close due to low wild steelhead returns

Jan. 2, 2012
External article, Seattle Times
Last sewer-outflow pollution worth $1B to stop?

Puget Sound Partnershep
Draft Puget Sound Action Agenda
Comments accepted through Jan. 20, 2011

King Tides in Washington State (external link)
Help Ecology collect photos of highest winter tides

Nov. 25, 2011
External article, Seattle Times
Ecology chief: New pollution undoing cleanup

Nov. 7, 2011
External opinion, Seattle Times
Ocean acidification is most urgent threat to marine conservation

Nov. 2011
External report, Sightline Institute
Northwest Ocean Acidification

» Archived Puget Sound marine news and announcements