The stormwater pollutant 6PPD-q is the second most toxic substance to marine organisms ever identified. Generated through oxidation of 6PPD – a chemical used in almost every tire on the road today – 6PPD-q is present in runoff from high traffic roadways and big parking lots associated with strip malls and commercial centers like Home Depot. This runoff, if untreated, enters streams and rivers where coho, Chinook and steelhead spawn and can cause both lethal and sub-lethal effects (i.e. lower reproductive success) on these species and their predators, like Orcas, who routinely starve due to reductions in their prey base.

As part of its work on 6PPD-q pollution, CSE is monitoring land use decisions that will generate new impervious surfaces that drain into productive salmon streams and challenging those that are made without guarantees that this pollutant will be filtered out of runoff. In Port Orchard, the City is considering approval of a new Home Depot commercial center with nearly 2 acres of new impervious surface that will generate over 123,000 gallons of polluted stormwater runoff into Blackjack Creek each year, one of the most productive fisheries in Puget Sound and one that is part of the ancestral fishing grounds of the Suquamish Tribe. 

Because the project will involve disturbance to streams and wetlands, a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit must be acquired from the Army Corp of Engineers before work can begin. The permit issuance needs to comply with the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and other federal laws.

In a 12-page comment letter submitted on October, 10th, 2025, CSE and Kitsap Environmental Coalition  asked the Seattle District of the Army Corp to withhold issuing the permit until the agency consults with NOAA Fisheries over ways to reduce the adverse effects of the new stormwater runoff generated by the project on four ESA-listed species: 

• Puget Sound/Georgia Basin distinct population segment (DPS) of bocaccio (Sebastes paucispinis) – endangered.
• Puget Sound Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) – threatened.
• East Kitsap steelhead distinct individual population (Oncorhynchus mykiss) – threatened.
• The Puget Sound/Georgia Basin distinct population segment of yelloweye rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus) – threatened.
• The southern resident distinct population segment of orcas (Sebastes ruberrimus) – endangered.

CSE has also asked the Army Corp to prepare an individual environmental assessment or environmental impact statement on the permit rather than permitting it under one of the generic, blanket permits used to approve more routine activities. Because the Home Depot project is likely to generate significant environmental impacts – including impacts to ESA-listed species – these blanket permit approvals are not appropriate.

CSE expects to hear from the Army Corp in the next month or so. Stay tuned for further developments on this project, which we hope will be cancelled and moved to a less impactful location.

Read: CSE-KEC Comment Letter 10-10-25