Puget Sound Innovation Stories

WRIA 15
Don’t Drip and Drive

Don’t Drip and Drive

Helping drivers prevent pollution from drips and leaks Each year, vehicles driving around Puget Sound leak approximately 7 million quarts of vehicle fluids, including motor oil, fuel, lubricants and more into the Puget Sound watershed. Oil and other petroleum products...

Regional On-site Sewage System Loan Program

Regional On-site Sewage System Loan Program

Helping homeowners repair or replace failing on-site sewage systems The Regional On-site Sewage System Loan Program (RLP) in Washington State consolidates multiple county-level on-site sewage system loan programs into a single public-private partnership between the...

Olympia Oyster Restoration

Olympia Oyster Restoration

Rebuilding native oyster beds and important habitat The Olympia oyster is Washington's original oyster. As our only native oyster species, they help keep our estuaries healthy by providing habitat for a diverse community of organisms. The oysters grow in aggregations,...

Kitsap County Stormwater System Operation & Maintenance

Kitsap County Stormwater System Operation & Maintenance

Maintaining effective stormwater facilities to reduce water pollution For Kitsap County, maintenance is the foundation of a properly functioning drainage and stormwater treatment system. This system includes: 670 stormwater facilities where runoff from roads is...

Union River Estuary Restoration

Union River Estuary Restoration

Restoring habitat and connecting people and salmon The Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife collaborated to return ocean tides to restore salt marsh habitat in the lower Union River, which is part of the larger Lynch...

12,000 Rain Gardens

12,000 Rain Gardens

Improving Puget Sound water quality one rain garden at a time! Rain gardens reduce polluted runoff into streams and Puget Sound by capturing and filtering stormwater runoff from roofs, driveways, roads, and other hard surfaces. Rain gardens are being installed all...

Washington Sea Grant Crab Team

Washington Sea Grant Crab Team

Engaging citizen science volunteers to protect the Salish Sea from invasive European Green Crab The European green crab is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as one of the world's 100 most damaging invasive species. European green...

Derelict Fishing Gear Program

Derelict Fishing Gear Program

Protecting marine animals from entanglement in lost fishing gear Commercial and recreational fishing is a way of life in Puget Sound where generations have enjoyed the bounty of the harvest and the thrill of the catch. Lost fishing gear such as gillnets and crab pots...

Milwaukee Dock Eelgrass Restoration

Milwaukee Dock Eelgrass Restoration

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: 06 LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT: 23 WRIA: 15 CITY, COUNTY: Bainbridge Island, Kitsap County   Project Summary Long on the decline in Puget Sound, eelgrass is recognized by the Puget Sound Partnership and the Governor's Results Washington program...

Salish Sea Marine Survival

Salish Sea Marine Survival

Endangered Species Act listed Puget Sound Chinook salmon populations have plummeted by 50% since the mid-80s and steelhead have experienced even steeper declines. Research points to marine survival as the missing link to recovery. The Salish Sea Marine Survival...

Maury Island & Quartermaster Harbor

Maury Island & Quartermaster Harbor

Thanks to improved water quality, the Washington State Department of Health recently reopened 180 acres of shellfish beds on Vashon Island to commercial and recreational harvesting for the first time in 20 years. Water quality in Quartermaster Harbor suffered not...

Manchester Stormwater Park

Manchester Stormwater Park

Manchester Stormwater Park is Puget Sound's first stormwater park, providing water quality treatment for an entire community's stormwater in just one small park. The project supports Kitsap County's efforts to meet the requirements of the federal Clean...

Landscape Conservation & Local Infrastructure

Landscape Conservation & Local Infrastructure

The Landscape Conservation and Local Infrastructure Program in Seattle has been a major success. This program gives cities a financial incentive to use transfer of development rights—a market-based growth management and conservation tool. Rural landowners...

Washington’s Local Source Control Partnership

Washington’s Local Source Control Partnership

Washington's Local Source Control Partnership offers small businesses in 19 Puget Sound communities free, hands-on pollution prevention assistance, such as spill prevention, proper chemical management, and other resources. Many pollution prevention programs focus on...

Kingston Recycled Water

Kingston Recycled Water

Kingston's recycled water project involves upgrading the Kingston Treatment Plant from secondary to tertiary treatment and providing the resulting recycled water to irrigate the White Horse Golf Club. The water will also be used to enhance stream flow and improve the...

Dickerson Creek

Dickerson Creek

Dickerson Creek's upper reaches have some of the best salmon spawning and rearing habitat in Puget Sound. But Dickerson Creek and adjacent Chico Creek have been affected by streamside residential development and aging, undersized culverts. The culverts were identified...