pierce county watershed health trends 2012
DESCRIPTION
Presentation Given By Dan Wrye and Corrie Smith, Pierce County Surface Water ManagementTRANSCRIPT
PIERCE COUNTY
WATERSHED HEALTH
TRENDS
• Watershed Health Status and Trends – Annual program plan
– Assess progress towards healthy watersheds
• NPDES Municipal Stormwater Permit – 2007 to 2013 separate program
– 2013 permit – monitoring more like our internal program
Two Programs
Water Year 2013
• Monthly Water Quality Sampling – 53 streams
• Biological Sampling (AquaJc Insects) – 32 streams
• Annual Water Quality Report Card
• Raise the Grade -‐ 4 waterbodies (Minter, Spanaway, Swan, Horn)
• Shellfish bacteria – Filucy, Burley, Rocky
• Weather StaJons – 20
• Water level loggers -‐ 15 • Groundwater wells – 11 • NPDES Municipal
Stormwater Monitoring – 11 staJons
• NPDES Drainage Inventory (GIS)
Freshwater Streams Monthly Water Quality Monitoring
Phosphorus & Nitrogen
Total Suspended Solids
Turbidity Fecal coliform
bacteria Dissolved Oxygen pH Temperature ConducJvity
Parameters are used to calculate annual Water Quality Index (WQI).
WQI Scores 1-‐100
≥80 lowest concern
40 – 80 marginal concern
<40 highest concern
Biological Monitoring (≤ every 5 years)
• Sample benthic macro-‐invertebrates (stream bugs)
• Good indicators of the biological health of streams -‐ look at a number of metrics
• Rotate though 51 streams, fixed locaJon; sampled randomly but at least once every 5 yrs.
Sampled 32 streams in 2013 with help from PCD & Nisqually Tribe
• 10 metrics used to calculate Benthic Index of BioJc Integrity (B-‐IBI)
• Unit less number from 10 (poor) to 50 (healthy)
• Data, metrics, results: www.pugetsoundstreambenthos.org
• Repository of data from many jurisdicJons
in Puget Sound – look under
Pierce County -‐ Watershed Health Monitoring
Assessment of Biological Data
WY 2012 Monitored Lakes
American Lake Carp Lake Gravelly Lake Louise Lake Spanaway Lake Lake Steilacoom Wapato Lake Waughop Lake
Lake Health Parameters
Results are in annual Water Quality Report Card
Weather StaNons • 20 Hobo U30 weather stations throughout Pierce County
• Variable weather/microclimates
• Use site specific data for projects
• Monitor temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and rainfall
• Data is automatically transmitted to HoboLink.com. View from PC PW&U website…
www.co.pierce.wa.us/index.aspx?NID=3024
• Easy retrieval from your desktop, laptop or smart device
Piercecountywa.org/weather
• Test runoff flowing into sensiJve shellfish growing areas.
• Test 3-‐4 Jmes/year during rain events
• “High hits” go to our IDDE secJon
• Burley Lagoon – 18 sites • Filucy Bay – 15 sites • Rocky Bay – 3 sites
Shellfish Monitoring
To access data: Surface Water Management Web Portal
1. www.piercecountywa.org/watershedhealthdata
2. Click “Access the data portal”
3. Select “Subject Data to Review”
4. Click “Water Quality Data”
Lakes Major rivers WQ – USGS Shellfish sites Streams Wells Flow data – USGS Weather Stations
Water Quality Monitoring Results
Blue = Good
Yellow = Moderate
Red = Poor
• www.piercecountywa.org/wqws
• Assigns “grades” to 44 streams in Pierce County where both WQI and BIBI data are available
• Grades are based on average of WQI and BIBI, adjusted if on 2008 Clean Water Act 303(d) list of impaired waters
Surface Water Health Report Card – WY 2012
WY 2012 Puyallup WS Report Card Sites -‐ 14
Canyon Canyon Falls Clarks Clear Diru Fennel Fiske Kapowsin Rody Spiketon Squally Swan Voights Wilkeson
WY 2012 KGI Report Card Sites -‐ 18
• Artondale • Crescent
• Dutchers
• Goodnough
• Herron
• Huge
• Liile Minter
• Mark Dickson
• McCormick
• Minter
• Nelyaly
• Purdy
• Ray Nash
• Rocky
• Rosedale
• Vaughn
• Schoolhouse – AI & KP
WY 2012 Nisqually WS Report Card Sites -‐10
• Copper
• Goat
• Horn
• Lacamas • Lynch
• Midway
• Tanwax
• Twenty-‐five Mile
• Ohop (at Nisqually River)
• Ohop (near Lynch Creek)
WY 2012 Chambers-‐Clover WS Report Card Sites -‐ 10
Clover Creek Spanaway Creek
American Lake Carp Lake Gravelly Lake Louise Lake Spanaway Lake Lake Steilacoom Wapato Lake Waughop Lake
Puyallup Watershed Results
Stream Name 2011 Grade 2012 Grade WQI Trend BIBI Trend
Canyon Creek C C+ ↓ ↑
Canyon Falls Creek C+ C-‐ ↓ ↓
Clarks Creek C+ C+ ↓ ↑
Clear Creek C-‐ C-‐ ↓ ↓
Diru Creek B B-‐ ↑ ↑
Fennel Creek B+ B-‐ ↓ ↑
Fiske Creek B+
Kapowsin Creek B-‐ C+ ↑ ↑
Rody Creek C+ C+ ↑ ↑
Spiketon Creek B-‐ C+ ↑ ↓
Stream Name 2011 Grade 2012 Grade WQI Trend BIBI Trend
Squally Creek B B-‐ ↓ ↑
Swan Creek C+ C ↑ ↑
Voights Creek B-‐ C+ ↑ ↑
Wilkeson Creek B-‐ B-‐ ↑ ↑
Puyallup Watershed Results, cont.
Down slightly from 2011 B-‐ Overall Grade C+
Nisqually Watershed Results
Same Grade as 2011 Overall Grade C+
Stream Name 2011 Grade 2012 Grade WQI Trend BIBI Trend
Copper Creek B-‐ B ↑ ↓
Goat Creek B-‐ B-‐ ↑ ↓
Horn Creek C+ C ↑ ↓
Lacamas Creek B-‐ C ↑ ↑
Lynch Creek C-‐ C-‐ ↓ ↑
Midway Creek C
Ohop @ Nisqually C+ C ↑ ↑
Ohop near Lynch C+ C ↑ ↑
Tanwax Creek C C ↑ ↓
Twenty-‐five Mile Creek
A-‐ B+ ↑ ↑
KGI Watershed Results
Down slightly from 2011 B-‐ Overall Grade C+
Stream Name 2011 Grade 2012 Grade WQI Trend BIBI Trend
Artondale Creek C+ C ↓ ↑
Crescent Creek C+ B-‐ ↑ ↑
Dutchers Creek B-‐ C+ ↑ ↓
Goodnough Creek C+ C+ ↑ ↑
Herron Creek B+ B ↑ ↑
Huge Creek B+ B ↑ ↑
Liile Minter Creek B-‐
Mark Dickson Creek C D+ ↓ ↓
McCormick Creek C+ C ↑ ↓
Minter Creek C+ C+ ↑ ↑
Nelyaly Creek C C ↓ ↑
Purdy Creek C+ C+ ↓ ↓
Ray Nash Creek C D+ ↓ ↑
Rocky Creek B+ B ↓ ↑
Rosedale Creek C+ C ↑ ↑
Schoolhouse Creek – AI C+ C+ ↑ ↓
Schoolhouse Creek – KP B-‐ C-‐ ↑ ↑
Vaughn Creek B-‐ C+ ↑ ↑
Chambers-‐Clover Watershed Results
Up from D+ in 2011 Overall Grade C+
Stream Name 2011 Grade 2012 Grade WQI Trend BIBI Trend
Clover Creek D-‐ F ↓ ↓
Spanaway Creek C C ↑ ↑
American Lake C+ B
Carp Lake C+ C+
Gravelly Lake C+ C+
Lake Louise A A-‐
Spanaway Lake C+ B
Steilacoom Lake C C+
Wapato Lake C C-‐
Waughop Lake D-‐ D+
• Analysis of trends for 41 streams with available WQI and BIBI data
• Found no significant correlaJon between WQI and BIBI scores/trends
• WQI & BIBI important as independent measures of watershed health
Trends
Compared slopes of WQI & BIBI trends for each stream
37 (90%) steams improving in one or both
4 (10%) declining in both: Clear Creek Canyon Falls Creek (Puyallup WS) Mark Dickson Creek (KGI WS) Clover Creek (Ch-Cl WS)
The four declining streams will be focus of 2014 Raise the Grade Initiative
-‐15.0
-‐10.0
-‐5.0
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
-‐15.0 -‐10.0 -‐5.0 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0
BIBI Slope
WQI slope
18
4
8
11
Assessment Used to Target Streams
www.piercecountywa.org/watershedhealthdata
Department of Health 7 year fecal coliform
City of Tacoma PAH trends in stormwater
Puget Sound Partnership State of the Sound Report 2013
Other trends are showing improvement, too
Raise the Grade
IDDE Sweeps
Onsite septic repairs
Capital improvement projects (retrofits)
Maintenance of storm water facilities
Salmon habitat projects
Watershed Councils
Partnerships
Public awareness
Why? We don’t know with certainty, but….
Our Monitoring and Assessment Team
Carla Vincent, WQ Supervisor
(253)798-‐2467
Berl Eldridge, WQ Specialist (253)798-‐2248
Corrie Smith, WQ Specialist
(253)798-‐6822
[email protected] Jon Thompson, WQ Specialist
(253)798-‐4643
Puyallup Lookout Weather Station Elevation 4840 feet