Latest Puget Sound Stories
Today, July 31, marks the 30th anniversary of the Utilities Underground Location Center (UULC), the "Call Before You Dig" non-profit organization, which provides one-call service to more than 1,000 utilities in Washington and Montana. Established in 1978 by five Seattle-area utilities, including Puget Sound Energy (PSE) predecessor companies Washington Natural Gas and Puget Sound Power & Light, the UULC has processed more than 6 million calls from homeowners, renters and businesses...
Two environmental groups have filed a lawsuit claiming that U.S. Navy explosives disposal is endangering marine life in Puget Sound in Washington state. The plaintiffs are Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a Washington, D.C., group, and Wild Fish Conservancy, headquartered in Duvall, Wash., the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported. In court papers, they say that the Navy conducts three to five detonations a month, combining training in handling explosives with disposal of...
By Warren Cornwall, Seattle Times Jul. 25--How much is Puget Sound worth? At least $7 billion to $62 billion a year, according to a team of economists. Trying to put a price tag on the Sound's ecosystem, including the forests, wetlands and mountains surrounding it, might seem as fruitless as trying to sell the sun. But that's exactly what a small but growing cadre of economists and environmentalists is doing. A report issued Thursday by Earth Economics, a Seattle-based nonprofit,...
By Craig Hill, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. Jul. 23--The North Puget Sound seems to be the place to go this week if you are looking to catch salmon, said Mike Chamberlain of Ted's Sports Center near Lynnwood. While South Sound marinas are reporting slow action, the fishing has been solid in marine areas 9 (Admiralty Inlet) and 10 (Seattle and Bremerton). "Areas 9 and 10 are the highlights right now," Chamberlain said. "But I'd say the fishing has only been fair." Chamberlain says the...
By Les Blumenthal WASHINGTON - For centuries, the cedar canoes of the Coast Salish Indians have plied the inland waters of Washington state and British Columbia, carrying trading goods, raiding parties and families headed to summer potlatch celebrations. For several weeks this summer, some of the 100 canoes headed to Vancouver Island for an annual gathering also will be trailing sophisticated water-monitoring equipment provided by the U.S. Geological Survey. Every 10 seconds, the $20,000...
By Rob Carson, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. Jul. 20--or people who spend their lives studying rivers, the Nisqually is a model made in heaven. It's only 78 miles long, but it flows through such spectacular, varied terrain that it makes an ideal living laboratory for geologists, hydrologists and biologists. It begins at a glacier on an active volcano; crashes down a steep, narrow canyon, through old-growth forests and past herds of elk. Then it meanders across prairies and farmland to...
For centuries, the cedar canoes of the Coast Salish Indians have plied the inland waters of Washington state and British Columbia, carrying trading goods, raiding parties and families headed to summer potlatch celebrations. For several weeks this summer, some of the 100 canoes headed to Vancouver Island for an annual gathering also will be trailing sophisticated water-monitoring equipment provided by the U.S. Geological Survey. Every 10 seconds, the $20,000 probes will test the water's...
By Keith Ervin, Seattle Times Jul. 8--In a case that could determine how far local governments can go in limiting forest-clearing across entire watersheds, a state appeals court ruled Monday that a King County law went too far. Rural property-rights advocates hailed the decision as repudiating excessive regulation, while environmentalists said it could degrade some of the county's most pristine streams and further jeopardize Puget Sound's threatened chinook salmon. A three-judge Court of...
SEATTLE, July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today issued the last permits needed to reconstruct a dock for loading barges with sand and gravel for transport from an existing mine on Maury Island. "This adds to a long series of findings and permits that clearly indicate our project can proceed while protecting the environment," said Mark Leatham, general manager of Glacier Northwest's Washington operations. "It once again shows that the regulatory agencies and the courts...
By Warren Cornwall, Seattle Times Jun. 30--People drawn to the beauty of Hood Canal are helping suffocate the very waters that brought them here. Septic systems pumping nitrogen into the southern end of the deep, picturesque fjord, are helping feed a chain reaction resulting in fish kills and depleting the richness of underwater life, scientists announced today. The findings follow three years of intensive work by scientists trying to decipher why the canal has suffered oxygen levels so...
