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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
- 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
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