Pumping up a new record: 10 million gallons of sewage diverted from Washington waters in 2016

Terry Durfee pumps out a bilge on Lake Washington.

In 2016, the Washington Clean Vessel Act, a joint project of Washington State Parks, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Washington Sea Grant, helped divert a record 10 million gallons of raw sewage from Puget Sound, Lake Washington and other state waterways that previously would have been dumped into vulnerable waters. Instead it was collected for safe onshore treatment. This diversion is largely a result of training, outreach and federal funds provided by U.S. 

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Earth's atmosphere more chemically reactive in cold climates

Becky Alexander in the cold room of the UW’s IsoLab with sections of an ice core. Her group is now analyzing ice cores from Antarctica to see if they show the same trend as in Greenland.

Unseen in the air around us are tiny molecules that drive the chemical cocktail of our atmosphere. As plants, animals, volcanoes, wildfires and human activities spew particles into the atmosphere, some of these molecules act as cleanup crews that remove that pollution. The main molecules responsible for breaking down all these emissions are called oxidants. The oxygen-containing molecules, mainly ozone and hydrogen-based detergents, react with pollutants and reactive greenhouse gases, such as methane.  

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Shrubs, grasses planted through federal program crucial for sage grouse survival in Eastern Washington

Co-author Michael Shroeder releases a male sage grouse in Idaho in 2010.

The sage grouse is an exceptionally showy bird and an icon of the American West. But its sagebrush habitat is disappearing, and there is debate over how best to protect the populations in an increasingly developed landscape. A new study by University of Washington, state and federal researchers analyzed sage grouse in Eastern Washington and showed a surprisingly large benefit from a federal program that subsidizes farmers to plant year-round grasses and native shrubs instead of crops. 

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