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The Skagit Conservation District provides free technical assistance to local small farm landowners interested in improving their property and developing and implementing a farm plan. A farm plan is a series of actions developed to meet the goals of each individual landowner while protecting water quality and the natural resources. Some of the things considered in a farm plan are farm size, soil type, slope of the land, proximity to streams or bodies of water, and types of livestock or crops. |
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EPA approved the Samish Bay Watershed TMDL and Implementation Plan in fall 2009. Currently, in 2010 to 2014, the TMDL is in active implementation, with Skagit County and a number of local organizations and Tribes working together to reduce fecal coliform through a new, 3-year grant from EPA (Skagit County's Focusing on the Samish website website). Many activities are described in Skagit Conservation District’s newsletter.
Starting in fall 2009, working with more than 20 state, federal and local agencies and nonprofit organizations and Tribes, Ecology spearheaded the Clean Samish Initiative (see Ecology’s Focus on Clean Samish Initiative). This speeded-up effort provided coordination with agencies and citizens to implement cleanup actions that would quickly lead to improvements in water quality. In 2011, additional attention and resources were focused on the Samish through the Puget Sound Partnership because the state Department of Health downgraded the shellfish harvest classification for Samish Bay. The downgrade was a response to high bacteria loads carried by the Samish River to the bay during storm events in the spring.
With the help of local landowners and agencies, progress is happening! Skagit County monitoring of the river during storm events suggests that the load carried by the river has decreased over the past four years. Under the Clean Samish Initiative, Ecology is inspecting properties along highly-polluted reaches of the Samish where livestock access may be an issue:
TMDL and Implementation Plan (Ecology publications):
Public health is at risk: The fecal coliform bacteria and nutrients that end up in Samish Bay can prevent us from safely using the Bay for recreation and shellfish harvest. The Bay was closed to commercial shellfish harvest for a total of 10 weeks in 2008 and 2009. All the closures were related to rain events that carried high numbers of fecal coliform bacteria to the bay from throughout the watershed. (The state Dept. of Health monitors marine waters and has the authority to keep commercial shellfish beds open or close them if marine water quality is compromised.)
Washington State Department of Ecology completed a study of the Samish watershed to determine the sources of bacteria and develop a plan for cleanup. Partners in this effort are Skagit County agencies, state departments of Health and Agriculture, Skagit Conservation District, and Skagit Stream Team, an organization of citizens who help monitor water quality.
The study shows that 70% of bacteria loading to Samish Bay comes from the Samish River, above the locations around the Bay where waterfowl congregate. Any bacteria loading from the waterfowl is in addition to the heavy load discharged from the river.
Fecal coliform bacteria enter streams and ditches when rainfall washes bacteria off our backyards and farms. The bacteria may come from onsite sewage systems or from improperly managed animal waste. It can come from either commercial or small non-commercial farms.
The annual inspection requirement for alternative septic systems (and once every 3 years for conventional systems) is in state law (WAC 246-272A, Section 0270). All 12 counties bordering Puget Sound were required to adopt the code by July 2007, and establish onsite sewage management plans. The Samish TMDL does not set the Operation & Maintenance requirement for inspections. The requirement is already firmly established by the Washington State Board of Health and each county’s Board of Health. If anything, the establishment of the Marine Recovery Areas (based on data showing water quality problems) and the TMDL study itself indicate there is a good basis for requiring annual O&M inspections.
Fecal coliform bacteria reductions needed for reaches of Samish
water bodies to meet state water quality standards and to open more
Samish Bay area to shellfish harvest.
(Ecology TMDL study November 2008)
Contact us for more information.
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
