There are thousands of public stormdrains that dump toxic-laden water into Puget Sound.  Stormwater runoff has been identified as the major source of damage to the Sound and the animals that live in the Sound.  The runoff comes from paved roadways and driveways and parking lots, places that collect oil, grease, dirt and chemical pollutants and deposit them into our streams, rivers and wetlands and from there into the Sound.  The recent Frontline documentary, "Poisoned Waters", described the impact on the Sound and the orca and other animals quite well.

People for Puget Sound, along with a team of students from the UW Geographic Information System (GIS) Program collaborated to map the stormdrains.  Excluding private and industrial stormdrains, they found:

• 4,529 known public Manmade Outfalls
• 2,123 Natural Outfalls
• 93 Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Outfalls
• 297 WSDOT Outfalls
• 70 WSDOT Bridges

The Puget Sound Partnership and People for Puget Sound are dedicated to both understanding the facts about the state of the Sound and then doing what it takes to restore our beloved Sound to health.  This map is one of the important sources of information to begin that restoration.