Hedrick Smith, Orcas Island resident and Pulitzer Prize-wining journalist, believes that solutions for even the most complex problems come from public involvement. He is currently producing a public television “Frontline” documentary with the working title “Poisoned Waters,” which analyzes the environmental health of premier waterways like Puget Sound and Chesapeake Bay, and asks why it is so difficult to save them.

Smith is a summer resident of Orcas Island and for years had a summer home on Chesapeake Bay, while his main residence is near Washington D.C. Both regions share a history of all sorts of source pollution, have major contaminated sites that triggered Superfund clean-ups, serious problems of agricultural pollution from farming, and enormous increases in land clearing and development in recent decades.

The two-hour documentary, which is expected to air next year, says Smith, “is not a Pollyanna piece. The message is tough but not hopeless.”

It is important, Smith says, to change the focus from “them” – large industrial, agricultural and timber polluters – to “us.”

“It’s all of us, the cars we drive, producing not just oil and gas pollution, but heavy metals, the products we drain through kitchen sinks or the drugs we flush down the toilet, the herbicides and pesticides we use, and especially, the personal care products we use – skin lotions, hair spray, deodorant and sun tan lotions – all endocrine disrupters that are now appearing not only in fish but in our drinking water,” says Smith. “The range of everyday products affecting the environment is devastating.”

“The question is not ‘How should these products be disposed?’ but ‘What should we be generating?’”

The documentary covers sewage treatment plants and industrial waste from Boeing, agricultural reclamation of tidelands as in Skagit County where dying tidal lands destroys habitat where juvenile salmon live, as well as Chesapeake Bay- area industrial plants and huge animal farms such as the 800,000 poultry farm in Maryland that creates more fecal waste than the populations of New York San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Las Vegas combined.

To those who would say that, with today’s economic climate, we can’t afford to protect the environment, Smith reviews the shift in attitudes from the 70s and 80s when the Clean Water Act and Superfund Cleanup Act came into being. Then, he says, there was a sense of urgency and the public demanded action. But now, says Smith, “The obvious stuff, like smog in LA and algae buildup on the Potomac, and the Cuyohoga River being on fire, is not in your face — or nose — anymore.”

“Recently there’s been the assumption that laws and government agencies are in place to protect the environment. But an era of deregulation has marginalized the impact of environmental laws and agencies.

“The awareness has shifted from them to us, and that’s a much tougher, trickier problem. It affects our personal behavior, our use of autos and of our personal land.”

The segments filmed in the San Juan Islands focused on studying the resident orcas to analyze the health and contamination of local waters. Those filming segments included interviews filmed at the Friday Harbor Laboratories with San Juan Island orca researcher Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research and Dr. Peter Ross, toxicologist with the Institute of Ocean Sciences (Fisheries and Oceans Canada) in Sidney, B.C., who studies the effects of persistent environmental contaminants on the health of marine mammals. Smith’s team joined Seattle NOAA scientist Dr. Brad Hanson in Haro Strait to film the process of collecting samples from the local orca population.

Smith’s documentary starts with describing the “point sources” of waste and pollution such as pipe outlets, fumes, and sewage treatment plants. The documentary then shows specific examples of public involvement making the difference, with grass roots efforts fundamental to forcing both polluters and regulators to do better in Puget Sound and Chesapeake Bay.

“We have to reflect life, and life is not just problems, but solutions. By breaking problems down, my hope is we can re-engage people. When people are engaged and fighting to protect the environment in their own front yard, then progress gets made. My hunch is the outcome will be a lot better.”

“The cost and complexity of doing this has caused people to waver. Do we really care and do we have the will to act rather than ignore the environment?”

Previously, Smith was a journalist for the New York Times. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 as part of a team reporting on the Pentagon Papers, the secret government reports on the Vietnam War, and in 1974 for his Russian coverage, when he was Moscow bureau chief for the newspaper. Smith moved to filming television documentaries in 1988.

With documentaries, he appreciates the ability to do in-depth research on flaws in today’s systems. “I like to figure out how to make headway, not in exposing the bad guys.”

Including a dozen programs for “Frontline,” Smith has made 50 hours of documentaries that have been shown on public television on issues such as the quality of health care, teen violence, juggling work and family, and global economics. His recent “Frontline” episodes cover “Spying on the Homefront “ (2007) and “Can You Afford to Retire?” (2006) All Smith’s “Frontline” programs are available at the Orcas Public Library.