Understanding the environmental impacts of more water over the dam

Ecology to consider allowing more water to spill over dams to help salmon migrate.

Spring spill season for dams along the Columbia and Snake rivers is approaching. During this time, generally from April through June, large amounts of runoff from the melting snowpack lead to high water flows. When hydropower operations cannot pass all of the water through turbines or store it, water is spilled over the dams through spill gates. Spill is used to manage incoming water and to help move juvenile salmon past dams, downstream towards the ocean. During this time, upwards of 100 million juvenile salmon migrate down the Columbia River.

This action would apply to eight dams on the lower 

Columbia and Snake rivers.

Juvenile Chinook, photo credit: Amy Hansen, USGS

Responding to the need for more salmon

Ecology, in support of the new agreement for flexible spill operations at four lower Columbia and four lower Snake River dams, is proposing a short-term modification that would allow more water to spill over the dams, with the goal of improving the survival of juvenile salmon migrating to the ocean. Under the flexible spill agreement, the increased spill would happen during hours of relatively low energy demand, balancing salmon survival rates while managing power costs.

The short-term modification would apply to state Water Quality Standards, specifically the Total Dissolved Gas criteria. When water is released from spill gates at the top of the dam, the plunging water can trap air (mostly nitrogen and oxygen gas) in the water. This could pose a threat to aquatic organisms, such as the adult salmon who are migrating back upstream and resident fish including white sturgeon or mountain whitefish. In this situation, fish are susceptible to ‘gas bubble trauma’ or what you could call giving fish ‘the bends’, if you are familiar with the scuba diving term. 

Currently, the total dissolved gas criteria is 110% for Washington State. There is a special condition to aid fish passage past dams during the spill season for the Columbia and Snake rivers, allowing total dissolved gas levels of 115% in the forebay, 120% in the tailrace of dams, and a maximum one-hour average of 125%. Spilling water over dams is recognized as one of the best ways to protect fish as they move past dams. 

The Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and a coalition of Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, Columbia Riverkeeper, and Save Our Wild Salmon have requested Ecology remove the 115% forebay criterion for total dissolved gas for the 2019 spring spill season and maintain the 120% tailrace criterion in the Columbia and Snake rivers. The purpose for removing the 115% forebay criterion is to test the benefits of more spill on fish passage by allowing higher total dissolved gas levels. This would align with the flexible spill operations agreement.

Fish passage system for a dam, graphic courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Our Proposal 

The goal of the short-term modification is to understand if allowing more spill will improve the survival of juvenile salmon migrating to the ocean without too great of impact on salmon, resident fish, invertebrates and other aquatic life in the rivers.

At this time, we are considering a short-term modification that would remove the 115% forebay criterion for up to three years. This action would coincide with the flexible spill agreement that aims to benefit salmon and hydropower. 

Learn about our Environmental Impact Statement

In order to do a short-term modification to our Water Quality Standards, we must complete an Environmental Impact Statement. Drafts of our Environmental Impact Statement and short-term modification are now available for public comment. The Environmental Impact Statement, while technical in nature, provides extensive information on current available science, research, and data related to total dissolved gas. It also contains a discussion of potential alternatives for developing a short-term modification. 

Save the date for our upcoming hearings 

We are planning two public hearings that will begin with a short presentation, followed by questions and answers. The hearing portion will begin shortly after the questions and answers are finished. During the hearing, you may give oral testimony and written comments. Written comments will receive the same consideration as oral testimony.

Feb. 13, 2019: In-person in Vancouver, WA at 2:30 p.m.

Washington State School for the Blind

Fries Auditorium (Old Main Building)

2214 East 13th Street

Vancouver, WA 98661

Feb. 19, 2019: Public Hearing via Webinar at 6 p.m. (register for the webinar)

After reviewing the comments, we will release our final Environmental Impact Statement and make a decision on issuing the short-term modification. 

To learn more about Ecology's actions to support orca and salmon recovery, visit our Orca task force webpage.

By Colleen Keltz, Water Quality Program

San Juan air quality gets first checkup

How clean is the air in the San Juan Islands? For the first time, a new temporary monitor will help tell the story. The closest permanent air quality monitor to Friday Harbor is in Anacortes – about 20 miles away. Based on atmospheric modeling, Ecology’s scientific staff believe monitors in Skagit and Whatcom counties and on Vancouver Island offer a reasonable picture of pollution levels in Friday Harbor. Still, some residents have been concerned that nearby monitors may not reflect pollution levels on the islands.

The temporary monitoring system was custom-made to fit inside a small trailer.

To get some definitive answers, our air quality staff recently installed a temporary monitor in Friday Harbor to record local levels of fine particle pollution and get a better idea whether the existing monitoring network is adequately assessing San Juan’s air quality conditions. Operating this temporary monitor during the winter months will give us a baseline on pollution coming from wood stoves, outdoor burning, industry, traffic and marine vessels.

Ecology's Will Wallace calibrates instrumentation.

We placed the monitor in Friday Harbor because, as the county’s largest city, we anticipate that locally generated pollution levels would be the highest there, and that if Friday Harbor meets air quality standards, the rest of the county should too. We plan to leave the monitor in place through May 2019. This study doesn’t include wildfire season because, although wildfire smoke is a concern, it is unpredictable, intermittent and it tends to affect a large geographic area, driving up readings on monitors across Western Washington.

Components of the monitoring system.

Particle pollution is a major public health concern, regardless of whether it comes from wildfires, wood stoves or diesel engines. Fine particle pollution contains microscopic particles that reach deep into the lungs. It can lead to heart and lung problems. People with preexisting health conditions, the very young, the elderly and pregnant women are most at risk from this type of pollution.

Ecology's Jenny Li and Will Wallace discuss the monitoring effort.

There are more than 100 air quality monitors at 80 locations across Washington, operated by both Ecology and local clean air agencies. For more information, and to check the monitor in Friday Harbor, or others around the state in real time, visit our monitoring webpage, https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/enviwa/.

$183 million proposed for clean water projects across the state

More than 100 projects would help improve infrastructure and protect the environment. 

Ecology is proposing to award more than $183 million in financial assistance for 107 high-priority clean water projects across the state. Our Water Quality Combined Funding Program supports local communities, helping them upgrade sewage treatment systems, manage polluted stormwater runoff, and complete a variety of other projects to prevent and cleanup pollution. The entire draft funding list is available online.

This year, more than $114 million of our combined funding is for projects that will help support Puget Sound recovery. These projects are a high priority, as they help improve water quality and create a healthy habitat for the endangered Southern Resident Orca, salmon, and the food web they rely on.

Nearly 70 percent of the funding we manage goes to local communities for environmental projects. Our clean water funding comes from a mix of state and federal funds dedicated for water quality improvements and protection. State financial managers calculate that 11 direct and indirect jobs are created in Washington for every $1 million spent on building clean water infrastructure.

The funding is contingent on passage of state and federal budgets appropriating funding for the projects. We will announce the final project list this summer, as soon as funding is secured.

Find proposed projects in your area using our interactive map. 

Here are a few project highlights

As proposed, 38 communities across the state will split $33 million in grants to implement projects to treat and reduce stormwater pollution. More than $20.5 million of the stormwater grants funding is for Puget Sound recovery projects. The highest-priority stormwater projects include:

Renton's grant-funded Sunset Terrace Regional Stormwater Facility
bioretention cell provides enhanced treatment for 2.9 acres. 

• The City of Bremerton in Kitsap County may receive a grant of more than $800 thousand to construct a system to treat runoff from 6.31 acres of urban roads and parking lots and 8.32 acres of other surfaces to improve water quality in Ostrich Creek. The creek is considered the most polluted stream in Kitsap County, with restrictions on contact due to pollution. The project was the highest rated stormwater project among this year’s applications, and is a high priority in the Puget Sound Action Agenda.
• The City of Tacoma in Pierce County is slated for a $5 million grant and more than $2.7 million in loan to replace nearly 27 blocks of failed residential roadway in the Larchmont Neighborhood. The project will treat stormwater and reduce stormwater flows from 43 developed acres through infiltration using permeable pavement and sidewalks. The project will help restore more natural hydrologic conditions to Flett and Chambers creeks.

Thirty-three projects are tagged to receive about $21.4 million in grants, forgivable loans that do not have to be repaid, and low interest rate loans to address nonpoint pollution. Nonpoint pollution has a significant impact on water quality; it comes from activities that are widespread usually across an area instead of a single identifiable source of pollution. The projects proposed for funding include an expansion of the highly successful Regional Loan Program for repairing and replacing failing on-site sewage systems at homes and small businesses. Examples of other nonpoint projects that may be funded include:

Grant-funded riparian restoration prevents stream channel erosion, 

filters pollutants, and improves salmon habitat on the Palouse River. 

• The Underwood Conservation District in Klickitat County is in line to receive a $250 thousand grant to conduct riparian planting, install cattle exclusion fencing, implement livestock best management practices, monitor water quality, and provide education and technical assistance in the White Salmon River Watershed. The primary areas of focus for the project are streamside agricultural areas in the Trout Lake Valley.
• The Cascadia Conservation District in Chelan County is on track to receive a grant of about $245 thousand to implement a large-scale riparian restoration plan through a community-wide clean water outreach and education campaign and by providing technical assistance to landowners to take steps to reduce nonpoint source pollution and practice good stewardship. The project is consistent with actions recommended in locally developed water quality improvement reports and management plans.

There are 36 wastewater treatment projects marked to receive approximately $125 million. Nine of the projects qualify for hardship financial assistance due to their potential impact on residential sewer bills. These hardship projects may receive a combination of grants, forgivable loans that do not have to be repaid, and low interest rate loans. High priority wastewater hardship projects include:

An exposed outfall pipe goes from Vader's lagoon

 to Olequa Creek. The pipe has leaks that will be fixed 

if the project is funded.

• Yakima County is proposed to receive nearly $1.5 million in grant and $700 thousand in loan to design and construct critical repairs and improvements at the wastewater treatment facility in the community of Buena. The repairs and improvements are necessary to ensure proper treatment of the wastewater discharged from the facility. The project was the highest rated of all projects submitted for funding this year.
• The City of Vader in Lewis County may receive about $4.8 million in grant and loan to protect Olequa Creek by constructing significant improvements to its wastewater treatment facility. If adequate funding is included in the state budget, the funding for the project will be approximately half grant and half loan.

Let us know what you think

Comments

We invite comments on our draft funding list. Send comments to Daniel Thompson at daniel.thompson@ecy.wa.gov by 5:00pm on February 18.

Public meeting

You can also join us for a meeting to discuss the draft funding list:
Wednesday, Feb. 6, at 1:00pm
Pierce County Library
Processing and Administrative Center
3005 112th Street E
Tacoma, WA, 98446

More Information

Learn more about clean water grants and loans on our website.

By Daniel Thompson and Colleen Keltz, Water Quality Program

Ecology seeking comment on Clallam County's proposed shoreline master program revisions



Shoreline along Lake Sutherland, about 17 miles west of Port Angeles in Clallam County

Starting today, we are accepting public comment until Thursday, Feb. 28, about significant revisions Clallam County is seeking to make to its shoreline master program (SMP).

The locally-tailored set of land-use policies and regulations is designed to protect and guide how Clallam County will develop, restore, and preserve more than 600 miles of marine and freshwater shorelines in the county, including:

• Approximately 130 miles of marine shoreline including a portion of the Pacific Ocean coastline, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and numerous saltwater inlets such as Clallam, Crescent, Dungeness, Freshwater, and Sequim bays.
• More than 480 miles of freshwater shoreline along the Bogachiel, Calawah, Elwha, Quillayute, and Sol Duc rivers.
• About 1,500 shoreline acres around six lakes in the county including Beaver, Crescent, Dickey, Elk, Pleasant, and Sutherland.

Clallam County last amended its SMP in 1992. The revised SMP will replace the county’s current master program and is designed to:

• Prioritize water-oriented uses and development in Clallam County.
• Provide for public access to public waters and shorelines.
• Support restoration actions consistent with the county’s shoreline restoration plan.
• Incorporate critical area regulations to ensure environmentally-sensitive areas within the county’s shoreline jurisdiction are protected.

Shoreline along the Elwha River in Clallam County.

Draft SMP documents available for review online or by appointment

Electronic copies of the county's draft SMP documents are available for review and comment through our website while printed copies are available for review, by appointment, at Ecology and Clallam County. To arrange a time to view printed documents at Ecology, please contact Michelle McConnell. Her phone number is 360-407-6329 and Ecology's physical address is:

Washington Department of Ecology
Southwest Regional Office
300 Desmond Dr.
Lacey, WA 98504

To review the draft SMP documents at Clallam County, please contact Steve Gray. His phone number is 360-417-2520 and the county office is located at:

Clallam County
Department of Community Development
223 E. 4th Ave., Suite 5
Port Angeles, WA 98362

How to submit public comments

Comments only need to be provided once before the Feb. 28 deadline at 5 p.m.. While we prefer public comments be submitted through our online comment form, we also will accept comments by mail sent to:

Michelle McConnell
Washington Department of Ecology
Southwest Regional Office
PO Box 47775
Olympia, WA 98504-7775

Next steps

Once the public comment period closes Feb. 28, Ecology will compare Clallam County's proposed SMP to requirements under the state Shoreline Management Act and Shoreline Master Program Guidelines. Based on the comparison, we will decide whether to:

• Approve Clallam County’s proposed SMP as is.
• Approve the updated SMP with recommended changes.
• Send the proposed SMP back to Clallam County with required changes to meet statutory and rule requirements. Recommended changes may also be included with the required changes.

2019 Washington State Brownfields Conference

Join us for the Washington State Brownfields Conference in Spokane this coming May. Brownfields are abandoned or underused properties where there may be environmental contamination. Cleaning up and redeveloping brownfields is key to local economic development efforts, turning perceived problems into community assets, such as affordable housing.

The goal of this conference is to bring together public and private sector stakeholders in Washington and the Inland Northwest to share information on brownfields redevelopment successes and future opportunities.

Conference dates and location

Wednesday, May 29, 2019, 12 – 5 p.m.
Thursday, May 30, 2019, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Doubletree by Hilton Spokane City Center
322 North Spokane Falls Court, Spokane

Registration information and the agenda will be available February 2019 on our Brownfields Conference web page.

What the conference will include:

• Sessions on current technical issues, funding sources, and affordable housing opportunities
• Case studies
• Field trips to tour successful brownfield redevelopment projects in Spokane
• Lunch and light refreshments on Day 1
• Breakfast, lunch, and light refreshments on Day 2

Who should attend?

• Local and regional government officials
• Housing agencies
• Nonprofit economic and community development organizations
• Environmental consultants
• Anyone interested in learning about brownfields or financial resources for local redevelopment

For more information, please contact:

Ali Furmall, Small and Rural Communities Brownfields Specialist
ali.furmall@ecy.wa.gov
509-329-3436, cell: 509-655-0538

Fecal Matters: A no-contact advisory issued for Clallam Bay in Sekiu

BEACH program update

Clallam County Health and Human Services has issued a no-contact advisory for Clallam Bay beaches from Sekiu Point to Slip Point through Friday, Jan. 11, 2019. This closure is due to a combined sewer overflow. The public is advised to avoid contact with the water in the affected area.

Contact with fecal contaminated waters can result in gastroenteritis, skin rashes, upper respiratory infections, and other illnesses. Children and the elderly may be more vulnerable to waterborne illnesses.

Stay updated on water quality at your beaches by following our Fecal Matters blog posts, connecting on Facebook, or joining our listserv.

Julianne Ruffner, our BEACH Program Manager, is available at 360-407-6154 or julianne.ruffner@ecy.wa.gov for questions.

Grant funding available for spill response equipment & training

When there’s an oil or hazardous material spill to the environment, damage follows quickly. The faster first responders can act, with the best tools at hand, the better.

That’s why we offer Oil Spill Equipment Cache Grants to help local emergency responders buy and pre-position equipment so it’s readily available to help fight a spill before it grows.

Yellow diamonds mark the locations of funding during 

the last two years. Go to our map to learn more.  

This view of our Ecology grants and loans map shows descriptions and locations of equipment we funded in the last two funding cycles. You can see how our grant program is building out a large network of equipment across the state – this is our intention. Our grants also pay for training on how to use the equipment.

Since 2017, we have funded more than 60 equipment caches worth $3.8 million. Here are some examples of the most recent funding:

• The Seattle Fire Department got $247,000 for firefighting foam Novacool, a less toxic foam that doesn’t contain perfluorinated compounds that persist in the environment. 
• The White Salmon Fire Department got $188,000 for radios.
• The Lummi Indian Business Council received $100,000 for a spill response boat.
• San Juan County Fire District 4 got $30,250 for firefighting foam, boating safety equipment and spill response training.
• The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community received $186,400 for safety and air monitoring equipment and spill response training.

West Pierce County Fire & Rescue

gets on-water, grant-funded training.

Classroom training for emergency
responders in Chelan County

funded by our grants.

Who's eligible

You are eligible for funding if you represent a city, county, port district, state agency, tribal government, clean air agency, local health jurisdiction, public utility district, irrigation district, and other special purpose district in Washington that serves communities at risk for oil spills and hazardous materials incidents.

The types of equipment our grants 

pay for.

Visit our website to learn about our in-person workshops and an online webinar we’re holding in January 2019, and watch a short video showing the kinds of equipment our grants will pay for.

You can apply for a grant now through March 6. If you have questions, contact Laura Hayes at laura.hayes@ecy.wa.gov or 360-407-7485.

By Sandy Howard, Spill Preparedness, Prevention, and Response Program