With an estimated 4.2 million gallons of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico each day since the April blowout of the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig, it’s hard to grasp the scale of this disaster. Marine animals and habitats have been destroyed. Commerce and tourism of neighboring coastlines have been devastated.
This image from the Washington State Department of Ecology, estimates that the oil spill covers 3500-6500 square miles of ocean surface in the Gulf – and compares that to Puget Sound. More alarming is the fact that Puget Sound is 2458 square miles total – including lands and water. We can be somberly thankful that we are not directly in harm’s way of the Gulf oil spill, but that doesn’t mean we’re doing all that well.
The Sound is threatened by a spill of a different kind: the runoff of toxic chemicals from roadways, homes, farms and other sources in the uplands. DNR is working with its partners to reduce the impacts of thousands of underwater outfalls that surge toxics into Puget Sound every day. Stringent upland practices in DNR’s working forests are crucial to reducing the impacts of runoff, which is why we have such rigorous forest practice rules for timber harvesting.
DNR is steward of more than 2.6 million acres of aquatic lands, lands that are submerged under Puget Sound, the coast, and navigable lakes and rivers. One of DNR’s overarching goals is to clean-up and restore Puget Sound by working collaboratively with our partners and stakeholders in local, state and federal jurisdictions.
