Tag Archives: Puget Sound

News

‘Seattle Cruise Control’ Coalition Aims to Cancel Cruises

by Alex Garland 

Seattle has a new group of concerned citizens, and their sole focus is getting cruise ships out of Puget Sound. The “Seattle Cruise Control” (SCC) coalition has activists from multiple non-governmental organizations coming together for a “Cruise Free Salish Sea.” 

According to a press conference on Monday, July 19, at Smith Cove Park, SCC’s concerns are centered around the cruise industry’s lax environmental standards and poor labor practices. Cruise ships in Seattle are a divisive issue, with many pointing to the hundreds of millions of dollars the industry brings to the region, while others say the damage to the climate and those who work on ships or live near their berths isn’t worth the profits.

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Community

‘Rain Gardens’ Turn Backyards Into Water Treatment Facilities, Benefiting Marine Life

by  Ben Adlin

Seattle’s frequent rainfall is responsible for much of the region’s natural beauty, from old-growth forests to the creeks and rivers that flow into Puget Sound and the Salish Sea. But rain can also be catastrophic to area ecosystems. When precipitation falls on roofs, roads, and other hard surfaces, it sweeps pollutants like heavy metals directly into local waterways, disrupting marine environments and devastating wildlife.

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Features

Weekend Long Reads: A Whole Lot of Sloshing Going On! What a Tsunami Would Do in Puget Sound

by Kevin Schofield

If you’ve lived here in the Pacific Northwest for a while, you’ve probably heard of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a massive earthquake fault off the coast of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon where the seismic plate holding up the land is slipping underneath the one at the bottom of the ocean. Pressure builds up for centuries along the area where they overlap and rub against each other, and every 500 years a major “rip” occurs where the mainland plate moves farther west and down, and the ocean plate is pushed up (and potentially east). The resulting earthquake is around magnitude 9.0 — about 100 times stronger than the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, our last big seismic event here in Seattle. In addition to the earth-movement damage that it would cause, the uplifting and dropping of the ocean floor along the fault line is expected to cause a tsunami wave. 

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Features

Friendly Hmong Farms: Supporting Puget Sound Hmong Farmers With a New CSA

by Kamna Shastri

There are four main ingredients in Friendly Vang-Johnson’s upcoming CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) program: family, Hmong farmers, youth, and giving back to the community. Rooted in goodwill and mutual aid, Friendly Hmong Farms’ CSA is intergenerational and empowers youth and centers food justice while providing the Northwest’s Hmong farmers with a steady source of income. The boxes will be full to the brim with local staples as well as culturally relevant produce grown by Hmong farmers of the Puget Sound region. Signups began March 4 and boxes will be available throughout the greater Seattle area beginning the first week of April.

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Features

Shape Our Water: Shelagh Brown, Reconnecting Communities With Nature

by Ben Adlin

Shape Our Water is a community-centered project from Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) and KVRU 105.7 FM, a hyperlocal low power FM station in South Seattle, to plan the next 50 years of Seattle’s drainage and wastewater systems. Funded by SPU, the project spotlights members of local community-based organizations and asks them to share how water shapes their lives. Our latest conversation is with Shelagh Brown, a member of the Alphabet Alliance of Color. 

Shelagh Brown won’t reveal her secret hideaway. All she’ll say is it’s a nearby lake with a lone public entrance, where the water is clean and powerboats are forbidden — a little slice of paradise. She’d like to keep it that way.

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Features

Weekend Reads: How Will Puget Sound Grow?

by Kevin Schofield

This weekend’s long reads, guaranteed to be election-free, include a look at the growth plans for the Puget Sound Regional Council; how different age groups are (or are not) trying to stop the spread of COVID-19; and progress in understanding whether we are alone in the universe.

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