Paul Joseph Brown / P-I
Vast amounts of pollution generated by the region's 4 million people -- heavy metals, petroleum byproducts from motor vehicles, pesticides, septic tank waste, pet feces and more -- wash into waterways in stormwater runoff.

Puget Sound.

It's a blue and shimmering treasure. A postcard-perfect reason for living here. It's a treasure we have plundered.

Billions of gallons of raw sewage and some of the most toxic material imaginable have been dumped into the waters of Puget Sound, ravaging what was once one of the world's richer ecosystems. We have overfished, destroyed shoreline habitat and poisoned beloved killer whales.

And the destruction continues.

What can we do?

This special report from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer addresses five different aspects of the problem, from the marked decline of local marine life to current efforts to restore the Sound to health.

(Originally published over five days in November 2002)

- Meet the people behind the project