Publication Summary

Ten years of water quality monitoring and analysis for fecal coliform (FC) bacteria levels and loading were completed in six sub-basins discharging to Totten and Eld inlets in Puget Sound in Washington State. The sub-basins are McLane and Perry in Eld Inlet, and Burns, Pierre, Schneider, and Kennedy in Totten Inlet. The EPA 319-funded monitoring program goal was to determine the effectiveness of watershed-scale, nonpoint-source pollution management programs in improving water quality.

Post pollution-control FC concentrations and loadings fluctuated considerably. Water quality improved at two streams, but a number of factors impaired ability to link improvement to pollution control efforts.

Data Appendixes B, C, and D are linked to this website and available in print as Ecology Publication No. 03-03-011.

Ten years (1992-2002) of water-quality monitoring and analysis for fecal coliform bacteria (FC) levels and loading were completed in six sub-basins discharging to Totten and Eld inlets in Puget Sound in Washington State. The EPA-funded monitoring program goal was to determine the effectiveness of watershed-scale, nonpoint-source pollution management programs for improving water quality. The sub-basins are McLane and Perry in Eld Inlet, and Burns, Pierre, Schneider, and Kennedy in Totten Inlet. Study design was single-site, before/after for all streams except Schneider (test) and Kennedy (control) paired watershed analysis.

For the ten-year monitoring period, the FC trend was up significantly (α =0.05) at McLane, and down at all other streams, but significantly only at Pierre. The FC loading trend was up significantly at McLane, and up, but not significantly, at Schneider and Kennedy. The trend was down, but not significantly, at the other streams. Incorporating historical data back to 1983, the FC trend was up significantly at McLane, and down at all other streams, but significantly only at Perry.

Post pollution-control FC levels -- both concentrations and loadings -- have fluctuated considerably from year to year. In all cases where significant improvement occurred for at least one two-year averaged period, the average of the last monitoring period (2000-2002) is higher than the prior low value. All streams violated state water quality standards for FC at some time during the study after best management practices were implemented; Burns and Pierre violated the standards every year of the study.

A number of factors, including re-prioritization, reorganization, and staff turnover, as well as complex interagency relationships, reduced the agencies' abilities to meet original pollution-control goals, including improving land management and water quality. These factors also affected the ability to monitor land-use and land-management practices. Overall, there was an impaired ability to link water quality changes to land-management programs.

Link to EIM data for User Study ID DBAT0002