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Two South Sound projects to better protect water quality in the face of development pressure are among eight Puget Sound projects funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The grant awards were announced Wednesday at a science symposium in Tacoma.
The grants include:
•$624,675 to help Thurston County with countywide drainage assessment to identify where stormwater improvements and low-impact development would improve water quality.
•$625,000 to the Squaxin Island tribe to create an incentive-based program to encourage landowners to be environmental stewards in the Oakland Bay watershed. The goal would be to eliminate shellfish harvest closures caused by pollution in the bay.
The grants awarded through the EPA's West Coast Estuaries Initiative are designed to help local governments and tribes protect watersheds, said Elin Miller, EPA regional administrator. "The Puget Sound needs our help," Miller said. "And we can start at the watershed level by adopting smarter land-use patterns and better management practices to protect water quality."
The Olympian
Scientists: Puget Sound species in decline as pollution increases
By John Dodge | The Olympian
The only way in and out of South Sound for water and marine species is the stretch of water beneath the Narrows Bridge. Slow to flush, it takes 56 days for South Sound to fill with a fresh supply of water and seven days, on average, for Budd Inlet to flush, said Skip Albertson, a state Department of Ecology engineer.
Nitrogen levels in the Deschutes River are on the rise, and oxygen levels at the bottom of center Budd Inlet are in decline. Both trends are ominous signs for marine life. "The loads of human waste are significant," Ecology environmental engineer Mindy Roberts said of South Sound water-quality woes.
Decline of species
Species in decline include coho salmon, herring and certain marine bird species. Species on the rise include toxic algae, anchovy and chum salmon.
"I think things are changing," said Duane Fargergren, who has lived on Totten Inlet in Mason County for 60 years.
Most of the research projects presented Wednesday were conducted in isolation. But sharing all of the information should help to build a South Sound recovery plan that either folds into the work of Puget Sound Partnership or can stand alone, Dewey said.
Puget Sound Partnership is a new state agency assembled to build the road map to a healthy Puget Sound by 2020.
"This is our last good chance to protect Puget Sound," partnership Executive Director David Dicks said in a morning address to the crowd.
"Saving Puget Sound is on the national political radar screen now. It wasn't two or three years ago."
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