Environmental Information's Role in Puget Sound Management

 

Duane FAGERGREN 1)

 

1)        Deputy Director, Puget Sound Water Quality Action Team,

Office of the Governor of the State of Washington

 

KEYWORDS: marine monitoring, water quality, indicators

 

ABSTRACT

Results of a long-term marine monitoring program in Puget Sound, Washington, USA, form the basis for environmental health indicators, which influence adaptive management through protection and cleanup programs in the Puget Sound national estuary. Some of the nineteen indicators, focusing on marine resources, water quality, nearshore habitat, and sediment quality, will be illustrated at the conference; copies of the newspaper document, Puget Sound's Health 2002, will be available for all attendees.

 

Introduction

 

Two decades ago, problems started to surface that raised concerns in the public's perception of a  "clean" Puget Sound in Washington State on the West Coast of the United States. Some examples of warning signs were:  gray whales entering the Sound on their spring migration north to Alaska often died before they re-entered the ocean; shellfish growing areas were closing or being downgraded, due to elevated fecal coliform levels; flatfish, namely English Sole in urban bays, were found at risk to develop cancerous lesions in liver tissues, as a result of living on and feeding on organisms in contaminated sediments; some populations of marine birds and mammals were declining rapidly. This concern led to changes in governance and policies in Washington State to protect this national treasure, Puget Sound.

 

      Monitoring

 

A scientific, interagency monitoring program, the Puget Sound Ambient Monitoring Program (PSAMP), was created to measure conditions and track changes over time and space

throughout the 7350 square kilometer area of Puget Sound. This comprehensive, interagency program attempts to focus on ambient conditions, in water, sediment and marine life. Five state, three federal, and one local government programs

comprise the team members of PSAMP. Technical reports and an overall summary of

PSAMP studies are produced every two years. The Puget Sound Water Quality Action Team provides the coordination for the PSAMP program and for this summary technical report,

the Puget Sound Update, which is designed for a scientific audience.

 

 

 

 

Scientifically-based Health Indicators

 

Based in part on PSAMP component studies, 19 environmental indicators were chosen to measure the Sound's health, and the findings are reported every other year in a newspaper-format document, Puget Sound's Health.  Health parameters are measured in terms of fresh and marine water quality, abundance of key biological resources, condition of the marine nearshore habitat, and the accumulation of toxic contaminants in fish, mammals and sediments.

 

Puget Sound's Health is 15 pages in length and provides easy-to-understand information about the sound and its resources. The report serves as one of the primary ways to inform the citizens of Puget Sound, including the state legislature, about the success of our management programs and the status of various sentinel marine species.

 

Key indicators of Puget Sound's health are:

o               Marine water quality (define in terms of dissolved oxygen, fecal coliform levels, ammonium concentration, and water stratification)

o               Sediment condition (based on standards for chemicals and biota toxicity )

o               Oil spills (major and minor)

o               Toxics in marine life (fish, mussels, harbor seals)

o               Shellfish growing water classifications

o               Habitat (eelgrass acreage and percent of hardened shoreline)

o               Aquatic nuisance species (especially cord grass, Spartina and European green crab, Carcinus maenas)

o               Fish and wildlife population trends (coho salmon, seals, herring, rockfish, birds)

 

Indicators direct corrective action

 

These indicators help us assess the effectiveness of broader management programs, and we work with local governments, state and federal agencies, native Tribes, and the legislature to affect budgets and set priorities for actions in the Puget Sound Water Quality Management Plan and the Puget Sound Work Plan, produced by the Puget Sound Action Team. Especially where there's a link between an environmental effect and a known source, management plans can be developed to correct the situation. Some examples are: shellfish growing water trends help to target septics and stormwater corrective actions; toxic contamination as defined by sediment chemistry, larval bioassay results, and sediment standards guide cleanup activities such as dredging and disposal or capping of marine sediments.

       

Priorities programs and projects are influenced by these benchmarks of health, and are published in the Puget Sound Work Plan. Some examples of priority actions or attempts to address sharp declines in important marine resources are:

 

･            Infestation by exotic species, such as Spartina, leads to volunteer and agency actions to eradicate small patches of the cord grass before it becomes well established and impossible to control.

･            Increased risk for English Sole to develop liver lesions results in cleanup and disposal of sediments, or in some cases, to cover contaminated sediments with clean material in situ.

･            Shellfish growing areas that are facing greater threat to conditional or restricted classification due to elevated fecal coliform,  receive priority for state and local programs to generate funds to deal with stormwater, correction of failing septic systems, and financial and technical aid to farmers to deal with control of farm animal waste entering streams and marine water.

･            Scientific trawl surveys, forage fish spawning surveys and hydro-acoustic stock assessment for groundfish populations can detect fishery-independent trends that lead to improved fisheries management and local protective ordinances. Actions such as curtailed fishing seasons or building a system of Marine Protected Areas to allow stocks to re-build, represent examples.

 

               

 

 

 

 

Long-term ambient monitoring programs are often difficult to justify, especially in periods of declining federal, state and local budgets. The approximate annual budget for this comprehensive monitoring program is $ 3 M (USD).

 

Examples of several environmental indicators will be shared at the technical conference, and copies of the Puget Sound Health inserts will be available at the TECHNO-OCEAN 2002 conference.