3/27/08 The Olympian

By John Dodge

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.

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