Features
2018 Year in Review: Seattle Environment News by the Numbers
We banned straws, made tree cutters pay and sweated through another smoky, hot summer in Seattle
By Niki Stojnic December 4, 2018
This article originally appeared in the December 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.
This article appears in print in the December 2018 issue, as part of the Year in Review feature. Click here to subscribe.
Zero
The amount of treated or untreated gallons of vessel sewage now allowed in Puget Sound; the waters were designated a “no dump zone” by the Washington State Department of Ecology in May.
1,429
The number of wildfires in Washington that the state’s Department of Natural Resources had responded to as of press time. Wildfires in Washington and British Columbia contributed to making 2018 the worst year ever for air quality in the state’s history.
$90,000
The amount a landowner was fined for draining, clearing and filling 1.5 acres of protected forested wetlands in Pierce County—lands that will take decades to restore. Altogether, the homeowners cleared 153 trees on more than an acre.
74
The number of critically endangered southern resident orcas that remain in Puget Sound, the lowest number since 1984.
82.8˚
The average high temperature in July, the new record high for the month.
77.9˚
The average high temperature logged at Sea-Tac airport this summer, making it the second-hottest summer on record.
80,000
Gallons of sewage spilled into Sinclair Inlet (a Kitsap County arm of Puget Sound) in August, thanks to a blocked sewer line at Naval Base Kitsap.
One
Major U.S. city—Seattle—to enact a ban on plastic straws. The ban went into effect in July.
$360,000
The amount nine West Seattle homeowners were fined for illegally chopping down greenbelt trees between late 2015 and 2016 to improve their views; two other couples were previously fined as part of this.
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Popular store launches community hub for gardening
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Historic Cornish College Building For Sale
Kerry Hall was the original home of college founder Nellie Cornish
The historic Kerry Hall building, at 710 E. Roy St. in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, was built in 1921 and was the home of Nellie Cornish, who founded the arts college in 1914 and ran it for 25 years. The college was formed in the building and has occupied it since then.
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Seattle nears pre-pandemic visitor levels in impressive turnaround
Visit Seattle released preliminary figures for 2023 at its annual meeting Wednesday, and found that the region hosted 37.8 million visitors last year, an 8.9% increase from 2022. That’s just 10% less than in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.