VITAL SIGN FRESHWATER QUALITY Freshwater quality refers to many aspects of water in rivers and streams including dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, bacteria, nitrogen, phosphorus, suspended sediment, and turbidity. Freshwater quality throughout Puget Sound is affected by many different factors including weather and climate patterns, water withdrawals and diversions, erosion and stormwater runoff, discharges from wastewater treatment plants and industries, nutrient input and other pollution. This Vital Sign tells us about the condition of the fresh water that is vital to people, sh and wildlife populations by monitoring trends in water quality and ecological function of rivers and streams in Puget Sound. VITAL SIGN INDICATOR PROGRESS STATUS Freshwater Quality Freshwater impairments Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity Water Quality Index Vital Sign Reporter Mary Ramirez and Leska Fore, Puget Sound Partnership [email protected] Last Updated 5/27/2021 Caddisy larva in its casing (Limnephilidae) Key Vital Sign Messages Streams, rivers, or lakes are considered impaired when they fail to meet water quality standards for bacteria, dissolved oxygen, temperature, toxics, or other pollutants. Once a waterbody is listed as impaired, a plan must be created and implemented to control pollution or improve water quality (see the Department of Ecology Total Maximum Daily Load process). Since 1988, impairment of water quality has been assessed in approximately 10 percent of the waters of Washington State. In the Department of Ecology’s 2014 water quality assessment, 1,694 listings were deemed impaired, amounting to hundreds of water bodies not meeting state standards. Of the 2,071 sites that were assessed in both 2004 and 2014, 3 percent improved from ‘impaired’ to ‘non-impaired’ (healthy), mostly due to the successful implementation of pollution control practices including efforts to reduce fecal bacteria pollution. Unfortunately, 19 percent of the assessed waterbodies status changed to ‘impaired’, and the majority of listings were unchanged and remained impaired (41 percent). Overall freshwater quality, as measured by the Water Quality Index, has not changed substantially since 1997 at the 31 river and stream monitoring stations across Puget Sound watersheds. However, WQI scores do demonstrate improvements in measures of fecal coliform bacteria and total nitrogen for major rivers in Puget Sound.
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VITAL SIGNFRESHWATER QUALITY
Freshwater quality refers to many aspects of water in rivers and streams including dissolved oxygen, pH,temperature, bacteria, nitrogen, phosphorus, suspended sediment, and turbidity. Freshwater qualitythroughout Puget Sound is affected by many different factors including weather and climate patterns, waterwithdrawals and diversions, erosion and stormwater runoff, discharges from wastewater treatment plants andindustries, nutrient input and other pollution. This Vital Sign tells us about the condition of the fresh waterthat is vital to people, �sh and wildlife populations by monitoring trends in water quality and ecologicalfunction of rivers and streams in Puget Sound.
VITAL SIGN INDICATOR PROGRESS STATUS
Freshwater Quality
Freshwater impairments
Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity
Water Quality Index
Vital Sign Reporter
Mary Ramirez and Leska Fore,Puget Sound [email protected]
Last Updated
5/27/2021
Caddis�y larva in its casing (Limnephilidae)
Key Vital Sign MessagesStreams, rivers, or lakes are considered impaired when they fail to meet water qualitystandards for bacteria, dissolved oxygen, temperature, toxics, or other pollutants. Once awaterbody is listed as impaired, a plan must be created and implemented to controlpollution or improve water quality (see the Department of Ecology Total Maximum DailyLoad process).
Since 1988, impairment of water quality has been assessed in approximately 10 percent ofthe waters of Washington State. In the Department of Ecology’s 2014 water qualityassessment, 1,694 listings were deemed impaired, amounting to hundreds of water bodiesnot meeting state standards. Of the 2,071 sites that were assessed in both 2004 and 2014, 3percent improved from ‘impaired’ to ‘non-impaired’ (healthy), mostly due to the successfulimplementation of pollution control practices including efforts to reduce fecal bacteriapollution. Unfortunately, 19 percent of the assessed waterbodies status changed to‘impaired’, and the majority of listings were unchanged and remained impaired (41 percent).
Overall freshwater quality, as measured by the Water Quality Index, has not changedsubstantially since 1997 at the 31 river and stream monitoring stations across Puget Sound watersheds. However, WQI scores do demonstrateimprovements in measures of fecal coliform bacteria and total nitrogen for major rivers in Puget Sound.
On average, between 2013 and 2017, only one-third of the monitoring stations had a Water Quality Index score indicating good stream health.While improvements have been observed in two river systems, the Nisqually River and Deschutes River, the slow rate of progress in overallwater quality trends suggests the recovery target is not likely to be reached by 2020.
The Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (B-IBI) uses the diversity and abundance of invertebrates to measure stream health. Comparing B-IBIscores at stream sites across Puget Sound between two time periods (2006-2009 and 2015-2018) showed that while some sites that were inexcellent condition declined to good or fair, overall more sites improved in condition than declined.
Stormwater runoff from urban and urbanizing areas causes the majority of habitat and water quality degradation in small streams.
The Stormwater Action Monitoring program is a collaborative, regional monitoring program intended to assess biological condition of instreamand riparian habitat in Puget Sound streams and provide advice on improving stormwater management and protecting bene�cial uses(DeGasperi et al. 2018). A 2015 assessment of conditions within and outside Urban Growth Areas (UGAs) found B-IBI scores to be signi�cantlybetter outside UGAs (69 percent of stream length in good or fair condition) compared to within UGAs (82 percent of stream length in poorcondition) (DeGasperi et al. 2018).
The B-IBI Interdisciplinary Team, the group leading development of the B-IBI Implementation Strategy, identi�ed priority strategies to addressthe effects to stream health from the built environment and effects from the runoff of working lands, and strategies to protect heathy streamsfrom the impacts of new development.
Strategies, Actions, And EffectivenessFreshwater Quality is a priority focus area for the Partnership's 2018 Action Agenda (once you click on the link, scroll to the bottom of the pageto view and download activities in the 2018 Action Agenda).Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity Implementation StrategyRestoration and protection projects funded by the National Estuary Program that are associated with the Freshwater Quality Vital Sign (in thePuget Sound Info National Estuary Atlas)What is working to improve water quality in Puget Sound? View effectiveness fact sheets for projects that prevent pollution from urbanstormwater runoff and the Stormwater Action Monitoring effectiveness studies.Stressor Identi�cation and Recommended Actions for Restoring and Protecting Select Puget Lowland Stream Basins
Background DocumentsLeadership Council Resolution 2011-08, Adopting a 2020 ecosystem recovery target for freshwater water qualityLeadership Council Resolution 2011-09, Adopting a 2020 ecosystem recovery target for B-BIBISetting Targets for Puget Sound Recovery (Runoff) Technical MemorandumFreshwater Water Quality Targets BriefsheetFreshwater Water Quality Target Summary
Other ResourcesStatus and Trends Study of Puget Lowland Ecoregion Streams: Evaluation of the First Year (2015) of Monitoring Data Fact SheetDepartment of Ecology Puget Lowland StreamsArticles related to stormwater and freshwater habitat in the Encyclopedia Of Puget SoundState of our Watersheds Report by the Northwest Indian Fisheries CommissionState of SalmonPuget Sound Starts HereDeGasperi, C.L., R.W. Sheibley, B. Lubliner, C.A. Larson, K. Song, and L.S. Fore. 2018. Stormwater Action Monitoring Status and Trends Study ofPuget Lowland Ecoregion Streams: Evaluation of the First Year (2015) of Monitoring Data. Prepared for Washington Department of EcologyStormwater Action Monitoring program. Prepared by King County in collaboration with the Washington Department of Ecology, U.S. GeologicalSurvey, and the Puget Sound Partnership. Science and Technical Support Section, Water and Land Resources Division, Seattle, Washington.
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