Pollution Identification & Correction

Hood Canal Regional Pollution Identification & Correction Program

Photo by Haley Harguth

Our Integrated Approach

The Hood Canal Regional Pollution Identification and Correction (PIC) Program works to protect and restore water quality, particularly to clean up and prevent fecal pollution from human and animal waste that threatens our ecosystem, public health, and our economy.

View upcoming meetings and recent program documents below.

Visit the Library for more Hood Canal Regional PIC resources.

Hood Canal Regional PIC partners include local county health jurisdictions, the Skokomish and Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribes, conservation districts in Mason, Kitsap and Jefferson Counties, state agencies, local stormwater programs, educators, and HCCC.

10-YEARS OF COLLABORATION

View the HCRPIC Program StoryMap below summarizing the program's successes over its 10 years of regional collaboration.

Click here to view the full-size StoryMap

Hood Canal’s shellfish and finfish resources have important economic, cultural, subsistence, and recreational value for Washington State residents and tribes. Water quality is critical to protecting and enhancing human health and Hood Canal’s rich natural resources of shellfish, finfish, and crustaceans, as well as keeping beaches open for swimming and recreation.

The Hood Canal watershed includes approximately 25,000 onsite septic systems, many in close proximity to water bodies. As these systems age, they can degrade and leak pollutants into the watershed, which eventually make their way to the nearshore environment. The Hood Canal Regional PIC Program monitors for these leakages at the shoreline, and investigates up the drainage to find and correct the source. This work is essential to maintain and improve water quality by reducing bacterial and nutrient pollution sources.

A comprehensive, regional PIC partnership builds on the strengths of each member, and enables efficient, prioritized, coordinated PIC work throughout the region. This regional approach provides cost savings by streamlining and combining preparation of grant applications, contracts, quality assurance plans and reporting, as well as resource and knowledge sharing to address challenging PIC problems.