Marine Sediment Index

Washington State Department of Ecology

Ecology-Puget Sound Assessment and Monitoring Program Partnership for Marine Sediment Monitoring

Welcome to the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Marine Sediment Monitoring website. On this site, you will find descriptions of our sediment monitoring program, a summary of findings, links to reports and data, and staff contact information.

Environmental Management Application

As part of the Puget Sound Assessment and Monitoring Program (PSAMP), Ecology’s Marine Sediment Monitoring Team conducts annual monitoring of Puget Sound sediments. This program provides regional and ecosystem-wide information on Puget Sound sediment quality, which can be used by environmental managers and decision-makers to:

Evaluate the overall condition of Puget Sound sediments.
Assess effectiveness of environmental action over time.
Place sediment conditions at local sites into a larger comparative perspective.

Background

Ecology staff began monitoring marine sediments in 1989 as part of the legislatively-mandated Puget Sound Assessment and Monitoring Program (PSAMP) (formerly know as the Puget Sound Ambient Monitoring Program). The PSAMP is a multi-agency partnership program administered through the Puget Sound Partnership (formerly administered through the Puget Sound Action Team).

Puget Sound Assessment and Monitoring Program Goals

The following goals were set by the PSAMP Steering and Management Committees in 1997 for all PSAMP components:

Assess the health of Puget Sound and its resources as well as document geographic patterns in the condition of the Sound and its resources.
Document natural and human-caused changes over time in the ecological components of Puget Sound.
Through ongoing monitoring programs, identify existing environmental problems and, where possible, identify the reasons for these problems.
Provide data and other information to assist the Puget Sound Partnership and others in measuring the success of environmental programs.
Support research activities by making available scientifically valid data.

Sampling Design

Since its inception, the PSAMP Sediment Component goals, objectives, and sampling design have evolved to meet the needs of environmental managers, to partner with other agencies, and to incorporate lessons learned from past sampling efforts. This evolution has resulted in the implementation of numerous programs and focus studies. These are described on the following pages:

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Standard operating procedures for the collection and processing of sediment samples include EAP039 Sampling Marine Sediment, and EAP043 Marine Macrobenthic Sampling Analysis.

Puget Sound Protocols

Most PSAMP sediment component sample collection and analyses follow the Puget Sound Protocols. These protocols for measuring selected environmental variables in Puget Sound can be viewed and downloaded.