Water Quality

The Hood Canal Coordinating Council’s original charge was to work toward coordinated shellfish and general water quality protection efforts in Hood Canal. Non-point source water pollution issues, including sewage treatment and disposal, stormwater runoff, boating impacts, and agricultural practices have been addressed through the Council’s programs and activities. More recently, significant fish kills in Hood Canal in 2002 and 2003 heightened awareness about hypoxia problems. The Council obtained funding through the Department of Ecology and Puget Sound Action Team to enhance its program of water quality protection and improvement by promoting enhanced onsite sewage treatment.

The Council recently completed the Preliminary Assessment and Corrective Action Plan  or the PACA Plan, jointly with the Puget Sound Action Team.  The PACA Plan roughly estimates the human contributions of nitrogen to Hood Canal.  The nitrogen is believed to fuel excess plankton blooms, which die, settle out and are decomposed by bacteria which consume oxygen.  The PACA Plan also proposes some initial actions to address those problems.  However, overall the current understanding of the causes of (and solutions to) low dissolved oxygen problems is very uncertain.  Additional information is being gathered by a team of researchers, led by the University of Washington and the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group.  The Hood Canal Dissolved Oxygen Program details the progress from the ongoing water quality studies.

The Council’s water quality program has several areas of focus to help improve water quality in Hood Canal:

• Gauge public perception, knowledge and determine barriers through an attitude survey that was sent to 1,500 homeowners in the watershed in 2005.
  
  
• Work directly with citizens to implement voluntary water quality improvement projects.
  
  
• Assess feasibility of market-based incentives and similar mechanisms to support improved water quality via enhanced sewage treatment.
  
  
• Assess latest onsite sewage technology to reduce nitrogen from sewage effluent.
  
  
• Help organize neighbors to create new community (cluster) sewage systems.
  
  
• Evaluate and support improved onsite sewage management by public entities in the Hood Canal.

Council staff participate and help coordinate with agencies and their programs for Hood Canal.  The Council is a participant in the Hood Canal Dissolved Oxygen Program.  We also are providing coordination within the Hood Canal watershed for the three watershed planning groups organized under the Watershed Planning Act (Chapter 90.82 RCW).

Water Quality and Shellfish Web Page Links:

• Hood Canal Dissolved Oxygen Program
  
  
• Puget Sound Partnership
  
  
• United States Geological Survey (USGS)
  
  
• Washington State Department of Ecology
  
  
• Washington State Department of Health, Shellfish (Marine Water Quality) Program
  
  
• Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (Fish and Shellfish Science)
  
  
• Preliminary Assessment and Corrective Action Plan