Puget Sound
The top picture is from the train heading south out of Tacoma. Train travel is great (highly recommended). The other picture is looking at Port Townsend and the Olympic Mountains from the ferry from Whidbey Island. The ferry is a great ride (Also highly recommended).
We are fortunate to live in a beautiful place, but best not look too closely at the water itself, nor peek underneath the surface. Puget Sound suffers from the same malady that plagues all too many shorelines and waterways. Agricultural runoff, improperly installed and maintained septic systems, inadequate sewage treatment, rain washing car crap and other junk into waterways into lakes, bays, sounds, and oceans. An article in today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer gives a short description of the problems and some solutions.
I think the following quote from the article illustrates part of the problem. "Stormwater regulations are getting out of hand," said Tim Harris, a lawyer with the Building Industry Association of Washington. "They're absolutely ridiculous. It's overregulation providing very little positive impact." I guess he never heard of "the tragedy of the commons."
More info here and here here
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