There's no gentle way to say it - Puget Sound, home to three struggling orca pods, would be more aptly named "Pungent" Sound for the overwhelming levels of toxins swirling through its waters.  Factories, businesses, state/government agencies, and individual citizens are all guilty of contributing to the problem.  Much of the waste dumped into Puget Sound is done so legally.  Still, there are many violators of the rules and not enough resources to adequately enforce the Clean Water Act. 

Even with new laws regulating pollutants, chemicals released into our oceans decades ago remain trapped in the seafloor sediments.  Clean-up and restoration efforts are slow; hundreds of sites languish on extensive contamination lists waiting their turn for attention.  Needless to say, the deterioration of their habitat is a major issue for the orcas of the Pacific Northwest.

One of the biggest chemical offenders are substances known as polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs for short. Although the use of these chemicals was banned in 1979 - a full 30 years ago - high levels of PCBs still stubbornly reside in the waters of Puget Sound. Because of this, our resident orcas are considered some of the most contaminated marine mammals in the world! As the top feeders in ecological food chain, orcas ingest the highest concentration of harmful pollutants. They must feed on large fish full of PCBs ... which have fed on smaller fish, also full of PCBs ... which have fed on plankton and invertebrates that have languished in PCB-filled silt.

The consumption of such a highly polluted food source disturbs the growth and development of young orcas, and interferes with their ability to properly reproduce. The PCBs also impair the mammals' immune systems, rendering them vulnerable to illness and disease.  

Click HERE to read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's five-part series on pollution in Puget Sound.

Click HERE to read the 2002 report on PCBs by Morgan Roose and Keith Seiders of the Washington State Department of Ecology.