Why the Pledge?
Who's polluting our water?
All of us know that industrial facilities, toxic waste dumps, oil tankers and pipelines often create environmental problems. What many people don't know however is that a significant amount of pollution to our air and water is caused by smaller "nonpoint" sources, such as households, small businesses, and community organizations and agencies. Nonpoint source pollution is our Nation's leading source of water quality degradation. It's the main reason that approximately 40 percent of our surveyed rivers, lakes, and estuaries are not clean enough for basic uses such as fishing or swimming.
How does it happen?
Natural landscapes like forests, wetlands, and grasslands trap rainwater and snowmelt and allow it to slowly seep through the ground, cooling the water and filtering out pollution. In contrast, nonporous urban landscapes like roads, bridges, parking lots, and buildings don't let runoff slowly percolate into the ground. Water remains above the surface, accumulates, and runs off quickly in large amounts. Cities install storm sewer systems that quickly channel this runoff from roads and other impervious surfaces to nearby water bodies. Water entering storm drains carries pollutants such as sediment from development and new construction; oil, grease, and toxic chemicals from business activities and automobiles; nutrients and pesticides from turf management and gardening; viruses and bacteria from failing septic systems; and heavy metals. This polluted runoff is usually released directly into creeks and streams without any treatment, harming fish and wildlife populations, killing native vegetation, fouling drinking water supplies, and making recreational areas unsafe.
What is the Whatcom Watershed Pledge?
This program provides citizens and businesses in Whatcom County with information about how they can protect and improve rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater. Program activities include: sampling surface and groundwater bodies to identify pollutants and their sources, educational outreach to reduce pollution from households, businesses and community institutions, preserving and restoring habitat critical to aquatic life.
What can you do?
The Whatcom Watershed Pledge helps you learn what you can do at home and on the job to prevent water pollution and asks you to take a personal pledge to do your part. Already, nearly 600 businesses and 1000 households in Whatcom County have taken the pledge. Institutions that have pledged include the Cities of Bellingham and Everson, the Mt. Baker School District and the Washington State Department of Ecology's Bellingham Field Office.
<<<CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE RESIDENTIAL PLEDGE ONLINE>>>
The following agencies and organizations have participated in carrying out various elements of the Whatcom Watershed Pledge program:
City of Bellingham
Department of Public Works, Environmental Resources Division
Fire Department
City of Bellingham / Whatcom County Disposal of Toxics
City of Blaine
City of Everson
City of Sumas
Nooksack Valley Recycling and Disposal
Port of Bellingham
RE Sources
Sanitary Services Corporation
Sustainable Connections
WA Department of Ecology:
Bellingham Field Office
NWRO Hazardous Waste Program
NWRO Spill Response and Planning Program
NWRO Water Quality Program
Whatcom County:
Health and Human Services Department
Public Works, Solid Waste Division
