Stories in Ecology Eastern Region | WA State Department of Ecology

Washington State Department of Ecology

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Stories for Ecology's Eastern Region

Water Quality stories are grouped according to the Water Quality Program's Five Program Activities. Some Stories may fall under more than one category, and are referenced accordingly.

Prevent Point Source Pollution (excluding water cleanup, stormwater, and financial assistance)
- Investing Time to Build Partnerships between Universities and Cities
  The Department of Ecology, city of Cheney, and Eastern WA University seemed to be "finger-pointing" over wastewater treatment issues at Cheney′s wastewater treatment plan. Ecology staff facilitated discussions between the entities involved, which lead to the entities working as a team to develop solutions to the problem.
- Pomeroy Wastewater Treatment Plant: Effluent Dissolved Oxygen Solution
  The town of Pomeroy is required to maintain a minimum level of dissolved oxygen in their wastewater discharge. Unfortunately, the effluent dissolved-oxygen concentration was consistently lower than the permit limit. After reviewing the situation, an Ecology staffperson and the treatment plant operator came up with a cheap and reliable fix to the problem.
- Social Marketing Workshop: Learning to influence public behaviors to protect and enhance the environment
  Ecology's Eastern Regional Office hosted a two-day workshop to help our partners acquire the skills needed to develop education and outreach campaigns that make a difference. This publication provides an overview of the project goals and highlights.
- Town of Washtucna: The Little Town that Wouldn't...and Didn't Give Up
  When the town of Washtucna discovered that their wastewater treatment system was leaking and possibly impacting their ground water, they worked with Ecology and applied to various funding sources until they obtained the funding they needed to build a new wastewater treatment plant.
- Wine Waste Woes! Collaborating to Clean up Crush
  Wahluke Winery began operations in the Mattawa area in 2005, discharging their wastewater to the city of Mattawa wastewater treatment plant. For the next two years, the city of Mattawa’s treatment plant experienced many treatment upsets due to the high biological oxygen demand (BOD) and low pH from the winery wastewater. A treatment upset means the wastewater may not be treated to the proper level before it is discharged to the environment. Since the area is suitable for winery and fruit processing, the Port of Mattawa saw an opportunity to promote the growth of these industries, so they stepped up to help. The result was no more treatment upsets at the city of Mattawa wastewater treatment plant, and a useable product for irrigation.
Reduce Nonpoint Source Pollution (excluding water cleanup, stormwater, and financial assistance)
- Clarifying the Permitting Process: Working in the Water Workshops
  State employees bridging the gap between the permitting agencies and members of the public who want to complete a project in or near streams and lakes.
- Direct Seeding - The Environmental Magic Bullet (See also Provide Financial Assistance)
  Soil erosion and pollution from agricultural pesticides and fertilizer have plagued the wheat-growing regions of eastern Washington State since the native prairie was converted to farmland. With the help of the State Revolving Fund, a group of farmers is using a new wave of direct seed technology which is reducing erosion, improving soil health, and encouraging more efficient use of water, fertilizer, and fuel.
- Forest and Fish Compliance Monitoring Program: Field Surveys
  The Compliance Monitoring Program (CMP), created to evaluate how closely state forestry regulations are followed, strives to provide a sound evaluation of whether forestry activities, conducted on state and private lands, meet both the forest practice rules and the requirements of forest practices applications (FPAs). Over the long term, when enough FPAs have been surveyed to provide reliable estimates, the CMP hopes to accurately describe compliance both statewide and for each DNR region.
- New Program Provides Assistance in Hangman Creek Watershed
  Hangman Creek, covering parts of Washington, Idaho, and the Coeur d′Alene Reservation. It flows into the Spokane River, is impaired with fecal coliform, sediment from soil erosion, and water temperatures that are too warm for cold-water fish. Coordination between Ecology and the Spokane County Conservation District, supported by several Washington and Idaho governments and organizations, led to receiving funding from the Natural Resources Conservation Service to help farmers utilize direct-seed tillage cropping technology. This project brought Idaho and Washington together to work to implement water quality protection in the Hangman Creek watershed – without letting a state line create a barrier to success.
- Riparian Restoration: A Collection of Landowner Perspectives
  Perspectives of eleven eastern Washington landowners who installed one or more riparian restoration projects.
- Social Marketing Workshop: Learning to influence public behaviors to protect and enhance the environment
  Ecology's Eastern Regional Office hosted a two-day workshop to help our partners acquire the skills needed to develop education and outreach campaigns that make a difference. This publication provides an overview of the project goals and highlights.
- Straight to Implementation: Cleaner Water Faster
  In smaller watersheds where the pollution problems are often easier to understand and fix, Ecology′s Water Quality staff in Eastern Regional Office piloted an approach called "Straight to Implementation." This method, which is faster and more implementation-focused, is showing success in a number of rural watershed in the eastern region of Washington State.
- Transforming Watersheds: Couse Creek – Asotin County (also see Provide Financial Assistance)
  Overview of the successful efforts to improve the water quality and fish habitat of Couse Creek in Asotin County.
- Transforming Watersheds: Palouse River - Whitman County
  The Palouse River is the main artery of the great Palouse grasslands of eastern Washington. Recently it became clear the river needed help. It was failing state water quality standards for bacteria, temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and a variety of different toxic chemicals, making it one of the more polluted water bodies in the state. Using a variety of different funding sources the Palouse-Rock Lake Conservation District initiated several river restoration projects.
Control Stormwater Pollution
- Liberty Lake: Finding Pollution Problems to Solve
  During the startup of the Urban Waters Initiative in Ecology’s Eastern Regional Office, a pilot study was conducted around Liberty Lake to test sampling methods and procedures. The pilot study discovered problems that are now being resolved through cooperation between Ecology, the Spokane county Stormwater Department, and the Liberty Lake Neighborhood Council.
- Social Marketing Workshop: Learning to influence public behaviors to protect and enhance the environment
  Ecology's Eastern Regional Office hosted a two-day workshop to help our partners acquire the skills needed to develop education and outreach campaigns that make a difference. This publication provides an overview of the project goals and highlights.
- Turbid Runoff and the Railroad
  The Urban Waters Initiative is tasked with locating and eliminating sources of pollution being discharged to the Spokane River. Finding and fixing direct discharges of stormwater to the river are constant and perplexing problems. When the Urban Waters Initiative team found one such site, in the city of Spokane, we had to figure out who was responsible for the turbid runoff.
Provide Financial Assistance
- Direct Seeding - The Environmental Magic Bullet (See also Reduce Nonpoint Source Pollution)
  Soil erosion and pollution from agricultural pesticides and fertilizer have plagued the wheat-growing regions of eastern Washington State since the native prairie was converted to farmland. With the help of the State Revolving Fund, a group of farmers is using a new wave of direct seed technology which is reducing erosion, improving soil health, and encouraging more efficient use of water, fertilizer, and fuel.
- Transforming Watersheds: Couse Creek – Asotin County (also see Reduce Nonpoint Source Pollution)
  Overview of the successful efforts to improve the water quality and fish habitat of Couse Creek in Asotin County.

Cleanup Polluted Waters

Social Marketing Workshop: Learning to influence public behaviors to protect and enhance the environment
Ecology's Eastern Regional Office hosted a two-day workshop to help our partners acquire the skills needed to develop education and outreach campaigns that make a difference. This publication provides an overview of the project goals and highlights.

Other Water Quality-Related

Unnatural Rock Makes for a More Natural Spokane River (video)
This video shows the unique work done to respond to requirements of Avista Corp.’s 401 Certification from the Department of Ecology, that was prepared to support Avista’s dam relicensing along the Spokane River. Aesthetics are one element to be considered in the 401 process along with water quality and other issues. Avista re-carved the river bottom to make the river look fuller and wider, even during low flows.
White Sturgeon Recovery Conservation Program
Under their Ecology-granted Water Quality Certification, the Grant County Public Utility District (PUD) is required to develop and implement a White Sturgeon Recovery Plan, in consultation with the Priest Rapids Fish Forum. The overall goal of the plan is to increase the natural reproduction of white sturgeon to achieve a population that is appropriate for the available habitat, while supporting recreational and tribal harvest. As part of the PUD′s efforts to restore these fish, more than 9,000 were released into the mid-Columbia River at the end of April 2011.

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Last updated March 2012