Pollution lower, risks remain for marine life – Seattle Times

5/28/11 Seattle Times
Pollution lower, risks remain for marine life
By Craig Welch
Seattle Times environment reporter

It can happen almost immediately.

Copper dust from car brakes gets flushed into a stream by storms. Inside half an hour, the ability of nearby baby salmon to interpret smells can get thrown out of whack. When a predator approaches, the fish don’t flee, increasing the odds they’ll be gobbled up.

This potentially deadly change in fish behavior can happen at extremely low levels of pollution, the same levels washing into Puget Sound during heavy rain. It’s one of the many ways stormwater runoff still presents trouble for Puget Sound.

More at
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015176223_stormwater29m.html

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