Puget Soundkeeper

Mission

Puget Soundkeeper's mission is to protect and enhance the waters of Puget Sound for the health and restoration of our aquatic ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.

Description

This year, Puget Soundkeeper celebrates forty years on the water! Since 1984, we've served millions of people and thousands of species of marine invertebrates, birds, mammals, and fish that call our waters home. 

We do this by preventing pollution before it reaches Puget Sound, through Clean Water Act litigation, political advocacy, outreach and education, and community science. 

To date Soundkeeper has:

•Advocated for the establishment or improvement of more than 35 water treatment facilities in our region.
•Set national precedents for industrial stormwater treatment, toxics regulation, and low-impact development requirements.
•Successfully resolved more than 200 legal actions against the most egregious Clean Water Act violators, resulting in more than $9 million for community environmental mitigation projects and restoration of affected waterways.
•Conducted over 1,500 kayak and boat patrols and 35 volunteer-led monitoring studies of Puget Sound waterways.
•Engaged more than 18,000 volunteers in waterway clean-ups that removed over 140,000 pounds of plastic pollution and marine debris from our waters and beaches.
•Mentored 71 youth leaders annually on community outreach, local conservation and restoration best-practices, and water quality analysis through our Lost Urban Creeks internship program. 

Puget Soundkeeper is a founding member of Waterkeeper Alliance, the largest and fastest-growing organization dedicated to watershed-based protection and advocacy. We are one of 340 independent Waterkeepers on six continents.