Water Quality

The lower Nooksack River Basin is located in Whatcom County, in the northwestern part of Washington. Within areas of the basin, the ground-water aquifer is shallow. Knowledge of how the surface water and the aquifer interact, and how this interaction affects the transport of bacteria and nitrates from agricultural fields to the ground-water system, is important to residents of the basin. This is...

Salmon and other aquatic life in the Puget Sound Basin need a healthy habitat to survive and to recover from historical declines, both in urban and agricultural settings. Yet, USGS studies in 1997 and 1998 found that more pesticides were found in urban streams than in agricultural streams, and that 9 out of 10 samples from urban streams had concentrations of insecticides exceeding levels deemed...

Snow and ice are major sources of water for plants and animals in the parks and forests of the Puget Sound Basin, including Olympic, North Cascades, and Mt. Rainier National Parks, and Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie and Olympic National Forests. In the North Cascades National Park alone, there are more than 300 small glaciers that feed 245 mountain lakes and a myriad of streams, wetlands, and aquifers. The...

More than 80 percent of drinking water in the mid-Columbia Basin comes from ground water. In Adams, Franklin, and Grant Counties, nitrate concentrations in water from about 20 percent of all drinking-water wells exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maximum contaminant level for nitrate. The three counties jointly formed the Columbia Basin Ground Water Management Area (GWMA) in February...

Lake Whatcom, a large, natural lake in Whatcom County, is a source of drinking water for about 86,000 in the Bellingham area and a place for recreation. Elevated levels of mercury have been found in fish and sediment sampled from the lake. Possible sources of the mercury include atmospheric deposition, tributary discharges, landfills, dumpsites, and local mining operations. To serve the need in...

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), in its 2000 Biological Opinion for the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project (CBIP) in eastern Washington, asked for a determination of whether pesticides are present in irrigation return flows at levels that may harm or adversely affect salmon and steelhead species listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act. As the major resource manager of...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is developing a rule requiring States to have a formal plan for the pesticides atrazine, simazine, alachlor, metolachlor, and other pesticides of concern in order to continue using them. The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), the lead agency for a pesticide plan for Washington, will need an assessment of ground-water vulnerability to...

SUBASE Bangor is a 6,785 acre Navy installation located on Hood Canal in Kitsap County, Washington. Currently it serves as the home port to eight Ohio-class TRIDENT missile submarines, but historically the site served as a Naval Ammunition Depot. As a result of the historical activities at Bangor, numerous contaminated sites have been identified. Contaminants include ordnance chemicals, trace...

Understanding the extent of contaminants in urban rivers is key to assessment of human health risks and the restoration of endangered salmon in the Pacific Northwest. This equally true for the Sammamish River Basin in northeast King County, Washington, where a new wastewater treatment plant is being considered by King County. Information is needed about the water quality of the Sammamish River. In...

The Puyallup River Basin in western Washington is drained by the Puyallup River and its main tributaries, the White and Carbon Rivers. The basin supports several salmon runs and hosts a variety of recreational activities. Communities in the basin include Tacoma, Puyallup, Fife, Sumner, Orting, Auburn, and the Puyallup and Muckleshoot Tribes. The types of land use in the basin vary from forests and...

Storm water, the rainfall that runs off urban surfaces such as rooftops, pavement, and lawns, can affect streams in a number of ways. As urban development increases, storm water can run quickly into streams, increasing the volume and peak flows and reducing summer flows. Sediment and other contaminants can also be carried into the streams. The Washington Department of Ecology (WDOE), the state...

During the investigation of a jet fuel bulk storage area, trichloroethene (TCE) was detected in ground water beneath McChord Air Force Base, near Tacoma, Washington. Monitoring wells were installed on the base to determine the extent of the TCE. In March 2000, after six monitoring wells were installed in the residential area to the west of the base, TCE was detected at concentrations above the...