Over the last several years, it has been repeatedly reported in science programs on PBS Channel 9 in Seattle (usually originating in Boston) about marine pollution in North America, that some of the worst examples routinely cited for their deteriorating ecosystems from ongoing pollution are Puget Sound in Washington and Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and Maryland.
The terrible sewage situation in Puget Sound is the result of many secondary (or better) sewage treatment plants, where hardly any of them separate stormwater from sewage (like Oak Bay, but hundreds of times worse).
Rainfall and rainstorm amounts in the Puget Sound basin greatly exceed the amounts here on the south Island, and during every frequent heavy rainfall in the basin, stormwater amounts surpass the capacities of the sewage plants, which are then forced to release by overflow the combined stormwater and untreated sewage into Puget Sound directly or via tributaries.
Combine this ongoing situation with the fact that Puget Sound, with a much larger population, drains only a very limited area and thereby has a limited flush compared to the Juan de Fuca Strait, which channels the drainage of a huge area by some of North America's major rivers, creating a continuous gigantic flush.
Axel Brock-Miller
Langford
