A Citizen's Guide to Understanding and Monitoring Lakes and Streams

Chapter 1- Who Cares About Monitoring?

Is there a lake or stream that is especially important to you? Perhaps one near your home, or where you played as a child. Do you wonder whether it is being properly protected against pollution? Have you noticed any changes in it and wondered whether they were a sign of pollution? Are you concerned about water pollution, yet feel you don’t understand enough about it to help? Having a clean, dependable water supply is important to almost every aspect of our lives, yet often we feel as thought there is little we can do to help protect this essential resource. There are things you can do – one is to become involved in a local volunteer monitoring program.

Before describing how lakes and streams work – which is integral to understanding how, where, when, and what to monitor – it will help to understand the different types of monitoring programs and know about who is doing what in terms of water quality monitoring in the Puget Sound area.

Water quality monitoring can take on many forms. The traditional method of water quality monitoring, where water samples are collected and analyzed, is the most common. There are other methods for assessing water quality. There is a type of visual monitoring, where people follow the shoreline and note such things as the condition of the bank, presence of shoreline vegetation, composition of the stream or lake bottom, and other physical characteristics that can be used to predict possible water quality problems. An increasingly popular method involves recording the abundance and diversity of insects and other organisms. Since these organisms each have different levels of tolerance to pollution, the number and type present can tell a great deal about the quality of the water. These two methods are indirect, or qualitative, ways of assessing water quality. They provide valuable information, are less costly that the traditional method, and can be easily suited to citizen monitoring programs. Although this guide describes the traditional method of water quality monitoring, much of the information presented is geared toward understanding how lakes and streams function. This information will be beneficial no matter what type of monitoring program is undertaken.

Different Monitoring Strategies

Some of the terms you may hear to describe traditional water quality monitoring programs are reconnaissance surveys, baseline surveys, routine investigations, intensive surveys, ambient monitoring, and compliance monitoring. Each survey type reflects different objectives on the part of the investigator. A few of the major categories are described here to provide a general understanding of how they may differ.

Ambient Monitoring

The purpose of an ambient monitoring program is to describe existing conditions or long-term trends in water quality. Many water quality parameters are influenced by the change of seasons or by short-term weather patterns. In order to distinguish between short-term "blips" in the data and actual water quality trends, the parameters need to be measured a consistent intervals over a long period of time. Consequently, an ambient monitoring program usually will involve the monitoring of a few parameters on a routine basis (every 2 weeks or monthly) over a number of years. This type of monitoring lends itself well to citizen monitoring efforts. Citizens are permanently on hand, often have easy access to the monitoring sites, and are knowledgeable about the project area.

Baseline Monitoring

The purpose of baseline monitoring, as you may have guessed, is to describe baseline conditions in a lake or stream. Baseline conditions are those which exist before some event that affects water quality occurs, such as development in the watershed or addition of an industrial discharge. Comparing data collected before and after an event is one way of assessing its impact on water quality.

It is a fact of human nature that very little monitoring occurs in water bodies before there has been disturbance of some kind. Of course, another fact of life is that as the population continues to grow, our lakes and streams will be further affected. A baseline study on an already polluted stream still provides information; in 10 years, you can see whether the stream is more polluted or – because of citizen involvement and watershed protection efforts – less polluted.

Good baseline information is scarce, so there is ample opportunity for citizens to initiate monitoring programs of this type. If your local lake or stream appears to be in good shape, now might be the best time to begin a baseline monitoring program.

Compliance Monitoring

Monitoring designed to assess whether specific standards or requirements are being met is called compliance or regulatory monitoring. All of the surface waters in Washington State have been classified by the Department of Ecology as Class AA, A, B, or C. Each of these classes has a different set of water quality standards. Monitoring surface waters to determine whether they meet their assigned standards is considered compliance monitoring.

NOTE: Although the purpose of an ambient monitoring program may be to look for long-term water quality trends, the data can be reviewed at any time to determine whether the water body meets its designated class standards, and so could also be considered compliance monitoring.

Compliance monitoring is more commonly used in reference to permit investigations. All industrial or municipal discharges to waters of the state must meet specific standards as defined in their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. The dischargers themselves must monitor their own effluents to ensure they are meeting their permit requirements. In Washington State, the Department of Ecology also is required to perform periodic monitoring of the same discharges to ensure permit requirements are met. Due to the legal aspects associated with this type of monitoring, such as potential fines and lawsuits, compliance monitoring is not well suited for citizen monitoring.

Who Monitors What in Puget Sound

Many people wrongly believe that someone somewhere knows about their particular lake or stream, and is watching out for it. This is not the case. Most lakes and streams are not monitored on any regular basis, if at all. There is ample opportunity and need for citizens to choose a local target and begin their own programs – with or without the involvement of an agency or organization. Some of the agency programs are described here to provide an idea of the diversity and extent of water quality monitoring in Washington State.

Puget Sound Action Team

The Puget Sound Action Team is responsible for implementation of the Puget Sound Ambient Monitoring Program (PSAMP). This program consists of collection of data on sediments, biological populations (e.g., fish and marine mammals), and habitats in addition to water quality type data. Monitoring by citizens is a required element of the PSAMP program and is supported through the Public Involvement and Education (PIE) Fund.

Washington Department of Ecology

The Department of Ecology’s primary responsibility is to protect the waters of the State of Washington. Consequently, this agency does most of the water quality monitoring in the State. Its surface water sampling programs are described below.

• Ambient Monitoring Program: This is a long-term program of year-round monitoring. Stations are primarily located at the mouths of major rivers throughout Washington and at a number of key locations in Puget Sound and in a few coastal bays.

• Compliance Monitoring Program: The purpose of this program is to ensure that permit holders meet their NPDES permit requirements. The emphasis is on direct sampling of the discharge (effluent), but some sampling also is done in the lake, stream, or marine water to which the effluent is discharged. Most discharges are located in developed – urban or industrial – sections of larger rivers and streams, consequently, compliance monitoring also is concentrated in these areas.

• Investigative Studies: Every year a number of lakes and streams or portions of streams are selected for short-term investigations that may last from one week to one year. These, too, occur primarily in waters where there are suspected problems.

• Citizen volunteer organizations throughout Washington State monitor their lakes during the summer months. In 1990, Ecology staff collected samples at 25 of these lakes twice between May and September. The samples were analyzed for a wide range of parameters. Unfortunately the volunteer lakes monitoring program lost funding in 2001 and is no longer an Ecology-sponsored program. Some Washington counties may offer citizen monitoring programs though. 

The Department of Ecology itself does not utilize citizen volunteers in many of its efforts. However, the department provides the major source of funding to local governments and others who promote the use of citizen volunteers.

Washington Department of Health

The Department of Health is responsible for monitoring bays and inlets in Puget Sound where shellfish are collected for commercial or private use. Shellfish harvesting is allowed only in waters that meet stringent federal water quality standards. It is the agency’s responsibility to enforce these standards.

Another component of the sampling program is monitoring the occurrence of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). This requires analysis of shellfish tissue. Citizen volunteers are assisting in this monitoring program by collecting shellfish samples from beaches throughout Puget Sound.

Local Government

Local governments have become increasing involved in water quality monitoring efforts. Some local governments have extensive programs that have been in existence for years, while others have smaller, newer programs. Program size is somewhat related to population size, but also is influenced by availability of funding, the sources of pollution of most concern, and the priorities of local communities and elected officials. Consequently, there is a wide diversity in the monitoring programs and the degree to which citizens are involved. King County has an active volunteer lakes monitoring program that is outlined at http://splash.metrokc.gov/topics/lakes/LKStopic.htm.

Tribes

Most of the Puget Sound Tribes are intensively involved in water quality issues. This involvement often entails some monitoring efforts. As is the case with local governments, the extent of water quality monitoring varies a good deal between tribes, as does the use of citizen volunteers.

Schools

An increasing number of elementary, junior, and senior high schools include environmental studies in their curriculum, and many of these programs cover water quality monitoring. Monitoring sites are often located close to the schools; monitoring may occur as a one-time event each school year, or may be done throughout the school year. Besides being educational, the information collected can be useful, especially if the same site is selected and monitored year after year.

Environmental Organizations and Citizen Protection Groups

Environmental organizations such as the National Audubon Society and the Sierra Club are becoming increasingly involved in water quality monitoring. Their local chapters provide a good network for promoting citizen involvement projects such as volunteer water quality monitoring programs.

Citizen groups also have formed to protect select areas. A local example is Save Lake Sammamish. Many of these organizations and groups may not currently be involved in any monitoring projects, but provide an excellent launching point for such projects.

The next section talks about the advantages of citizen monitoring.

Return to Table of Contents | Lakes-Chapter 2 | Streams-Chapter 3 | From the Field to the Lab | Hydrology