Puget Sound Recovery Plan: Bays and Estuaries

ENVR E-101 Assignment # 3   Charles Stevens, Graduate Student

5. BAYS: Ocean bays, particularly those in urbanized areas, are impacted by surface run off, sewage overflow, industrial discharges, over utilizations for recreation and commercial purposes.  Describe how the bay is used and conditions of that bay - the pollution and ecological challenges, pollution sources, water quality in terms of contaminate levels, algae and bacteria conditions. Are their local organizations with an interest in the bay? Who are they? What are their programs? What are the key indicators and trends about the “health” of that bay? What regulations have been enacted to protect and enhance the quality of that bay?

Op-Ed

The twenty-year recovery plan for Puget Sound is meeting some targets, but not others.   New threats to salmon, killer whales and shellfish populations replace old ones.

The Puget Sound is the largest estuary by volume of water in the United States, more than twice that of Chesapeake Bay, although Chesapeake is about four times bigger by area.  About 4.4 million people live around or close to Puget Sound, 68% of Washington State’s population (Puget Sound Institute, 2015), a growth of 5.8% since 2010.    The population is expected to grow another 18.2% by 2030.  From 2010-2013, the number of housing units in Puget Sound increased 1.6% (from 1.96 million houses to 1.99 million).  84% of people feel inspired by living near Puget Sound.  76% say they engage in cultural practices around the Sound.  In 2014, outdoor recreation contributed over $10.1billion and 118,000 jobs (compared to $37 billion in technology and 144,000 related jobs).  Washington State shellfish have a commercial value of over $100 million a year, about one fourth of the United States’ total, with 190,000 acres of growing area.  230,000 salmon were caught on fishing trips from 2012-13, with between 150,000 and 225,00 fishing licenses sold every year (Puget Sound Institute, 2015). This is what is at stake if the recovery plan fails.

Puget Sound has an ambitious 20-year recovery plan and an organization, the Puget Sound Partnership (About the Puget Sound Partnership, 2015), chartered by the Washington State Legislature in 2007, to manage and track the plan.   But despite EPA and other funding, the recovery plan budget has a shortfall of $347 million.   The latest report indicates progress on 60% of the action plan’s goals, but others are falling behind.

Tipping point for key species

Three species that are vital to tourism, recreation and fishing -- salmon, killer whales and shellfish – are at risk.   Their populations are all significantly down from their historic numbers, mainly due to chemical spills from industrial sites, particularly those in the Duwamish waterway.   The EPA targeted the waterway for a Superfund cleanup in 2001. The cleanup is underway but the population of these species hasn’t recovered.  It has plateaued.  A new threat, driven by population, vehicle traffic and construction growth, is increased stormwater runoff.   Stormwater runoff includes oil and gas spills from vehicles; chemicals from landscaping, gardens and golf courses; as well as personal care and cleaning products.   There are solutions, including new building codes and filtration systems, that would address this.    But with continued population and traffic growth, there is no time to waste.  The enemy of a clean and healthy natural marine ecosystem in Puget Sound used to be large corporations and industrial sites, but no longer.  The enemy is now us – but it is within our control to ensure recovery.

Report

Introduction

Puget Sound includes all salt waters inside the international boundaries line of Washington State and British Columbia, and east from the junction of the Strait of Juan to Fuca and the Pacific Ocean.   It includes the watershed – all the rivers and streams that drain into Puget Sound - as well as the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the San Juan islands.  The entire shoreline around Puget Sound is approximately 2,500 miles.  It has a very diverse marine ecosystem, with more species being discovered every year. Since 1980 more than 37 new species of fish have been discovered in the Salish Sea, which comprises Puget Sound and the Straits of Georgia (in British Columbia), bringing the total number to 253, (Dunagan, 2015).

Background

In 2007, the Washington State legislature created the Puget Sound Partnership to coordinate the regional effort to clean up Puget Sound. The Partnership, including citizens, governments, tribes, scientists, and businesses, is charged with setting priorities, implementing the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Plan formed by NOAA in January 2007 (Shared Strategy for Puget Sound, 2007), and ensuring accountability for results.  Six goals were set:

• Healthy people are supported by a healthy Puget Sound
• Quality of life is sustained by a healthy Puget Sound
• Puget Sound species and the web of life thrive
• Puget Sound habitat is protected and restored
• Puget Sound rivers and streams flow at levels that support people, fish and wildlife
• Puget Sound marine and fresh waters are clean

The Leadership Council of the Puget Sound Partnership adopted twenty-one vital sign indicators to track the goals and set eighteen ecosystem recovery targets for 2020. Vital sign indicators and recovery targets address both the condition of the Puget Sound ecosystem and pressures on the system.  The most recent Action Agenda for 2014-15 (Puget Sound Partnership, 2014) focuses on three strategic initiatives:

• Prevention of pollution from urban stormwater runoff
• Protection and restoration of habitat
• Recovery of shellfish beds

The most recent report card for Q3 – 2015 listed 60% of the 83 performance indicators as on plan, 11% not started, 8% with serious constraints, 16% off plan, 2% not reported and 2% completed (Puget Sound Vital Signs, 2015).   And it noted a funding gap of $347 million versus a budget of $430 million.  

Pollutants

In 1945, Richard Foster, an inspector with the Washington Pollution Control Commission, conducted a survey of the Duwamish-Green River drainage, the major industrial waterway which empties into Elliott Bay and Puget Sound.   He found thrity-eight sources of pollution (Puget Sound Institute, 2015).   In 2001 the EPA designated the Lower Duwamish waterway as a Superfund site.  In 2014 the EPA released its Record of Decision, the plan for federal and state government agencies that would clean the river, at a cost of $342 million over 17 years (EPA, 2014).  The biggest challenge cited was stormwater runoff.  There are at least 238 sewage outfalls and 198 stormwater drains, mostly unmonitored, that empty into Puget Sound.