Mindy Roberts of Washington Conservation Action said someone asked her a few years ago about the frequent sewage spills occurring in Tacoma’s Thea Foss Waterway. “My answer was, ‘What sewage spills?’” Mindy recalled, quickly realizing that if she didn’t know about sewage spills in her own city, then hardly anybody else was likely to know […]
April 17, 2025
Eating fish: Court order may end the battle over toxic standards in Washington state waters
It appears that a decade-long battle to establish allowable levels of toxic chemicals in Washington state’s waterways may finally be over. Strict toxic standards, first imposed on the state in 2016 by the Environmental Protection Agency, seem to have prevailed. Primary chemicals of concern in the long battle over human health criteria include polychlorinated biphenyls, […]
April 7, 2025
Research and whale watching enhanced with artificial intelligence to identify individual orcas
When out on Puget Sound with killer whale experts, I’m often impressed by how quickly such folks can identify individual whales by name or number, even when a group of orcas is swimming a fair distance away. I can’t begin to do that, because I have never studied the catalogs of dorsal fins and markings […]
April 2, 2025
Unpacking uncertainty: How experts recommend improving Puget Sound modeling
An external scientific review by independent experts is a common and valuable practice, particularly when the models have significant management implications. This ethos is why peer review is foundational to science in general. By providing an objective assessment, external reviewers can help ensure the models are robust and appropriate for the management decisions they’re being […]
March 28, 2025
PSI’s Andy James receives grant to track PCBs and PBDEs in the Hylebos waterway
The Hylebos waterway, located in White/Puyallup river watershed, is a hotspot for PCBs and PBDEs. PSI senior research scientist Andy James has received a federally supported grant for $858,000 to track the sources of PCBs and PBDEs in the Hylebos waterway in Tacoma. The waterway is a hotspot for PCBs and PBDEs, and despite ongoing […]
December 27, 2024
The importance of estuaries for adult salmon in Puget Sound
Next time you see a salmon moving upstream to spawn, consider the importance of estuaries. Estuaries, places where rivers and creeks mix with the waters of Puget Sound, help salmon adjust the ions (salts) in their bodies so they can safely make the transition from marine to fresh water. A new report by University of Washington scientist […]
December 16, 2024
Ask a scientist: What is a distributary channel?
In a natural state, a river passing through a floodplain will have many side channels and tendrils that distribute the water, fanning it out across the delta. However, these channels are often lost when rivers are diverted to make room for farmland or other human development. In many cases, even after the dikes and levees […]
December 16, 2024
Protecting the health of people who eat fish: The long battle over water quality standards
Culminating more than a decade of fierce debate, Washington state officials formally adopted new water-quality standards for toxic chemicals to protect the health of people who eat fish from our local waterways. On its face, this action appears inconsequential, considering that these numerical criteria were already in place, having been imposed two years ago by […]
December 12, 2024
Annual report documents Puget Sound’s marine conditions
The Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program (PSEMP) has released its 13th annual overview of Puget Sound’s marine water conditions. The report is funded in part by the Puget Sound Institute and is produced by 67 contributors from federal, tribal, state, and local agencies, academia, nonprofits, and private and volunteer groups. The compilation looks back on the […]
December 11, 2024
$1 million awarded for new approach to removing PBDEs from municipal wastewater
The University of Washington has been awarded a $1 million grant by the Stormwater Strategic Initiative Lead for Piloting Solutions for Contaminants of Emerging Concern in Wastewater. The project will be led by Heidi Gough, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences and Andy James, University of Washington Tacoma, Center for Urban Waters and the Puget […]