Environmental Assessment Program

1
Environmental Assessment Program
GMAP Presentation August 24, 2005
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2
Environmental Assessment Program

• EAP Activities by FTE
• Monitor water quality and stream flows
  statewide
• Conduct environmental studies
• Perform lab analyses
• Accredit external labs
• Quality assurance

Rivers streams 13 Flow gaging 14 Marine
other statewide 14
TMDL Studies 23 Other Studies 19
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3
Percent of Freshwater Stations Not Meeting WQ
Criteria

• Desired Result
• Reliably assess and report on the health of
  freshwater rivers, streams, and lakes
• Source EAP monitoring data

• Place Chart B here.

• Place Chart A here.

• Key Findings
• Many sites do not meet criteria, especially in
  summer months
• Most stations on lower mainstem rivers,
  tributaries rarely sampled
• Sampling occurs only once/month
• No lake monitoring

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4
Percent of Freshwater Stations Not Meeting WQ
Criteria

• Place Chart B here.

• Key Findings
• Temperature, pH, bacteria, dissolved oxygen are
  the main problems
• Toxics, biology, habitat not sampled
• Little continuous data (temperature an exception)

• Place Chart A here.

• Next Steps
• Working w/ Govs Monitoring Forum others to
  coordinate interagency monitoring
• Contract to develop statewide random sampling
  framework
• Other approaches, e.g. intensively monitored
  watersheds, to better understand cause-effect
  relationships
• Improved technology continuous temperature,
  turbidity

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5
TMDL Case Study

• Activity Measure
• Directed environmental studies target known or
  suspected problems
• EAP completes 30-40 studies/year
• Lake Chelan TMDL completed in Quarter 8

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• Place Chart A here.

• Lake Chelan TMDL Key Results
• Some of the highest DDT levels measured by
  Ecology statewide
• Among the highest levels in the US
• (EPA national study of fish in lakes)
• Next Steps
• WQ developing cleanup plan w/ locals
• DOH consumption advisory for mackinaw

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6
Percent of Stream Flows Below Critical Levels

• Desired Result
• Reliably evaluate stream flows in salmon
  critical basins and key watersheds statewide, and
  make real-time stream flow data available to the
  public online.

• Place Chart A here.

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7
Percent of Stream Flows Below Critical Levels

• Place Chart B here.

• Key Findings
• Flows have been unusually low for the past 5
  years
• Many new historic minimum flows have been
  recorded
• Implications for salmon recovery, water quality,
  and achieving in-stream targets

• Place Chart A here.

• Next Steps
• Working with Water Resources to develop measure
  to compare actual flows to in-stream targets
• Concern about long-term funding for Ecologys
  stream gaging network

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