| STREAM &
MARINE WATER QUALITY
Stream
Advisories
Eleven
streams in Kitsap County are so polluted with bacteria that the
Health District advises the public to avoid contact with them. Click
here to see a map of these streams. These include:
- Annapolis Creek
(Port Orchard area)
- Barker Creek (Silverdale
area)
- Daniels Creek (Poulsbo
area)
- Enetai (Dee) Creek (East
Bremerton)
- Indianola Creek (Indianola)
- Karcher Creek (Port
Orchard area)
- Kitsap Creek (Indianola)
- Ostrich Bay Creek (West
Bremerton)
- Phinney Creek (West
Bremerton)
- Sacco Creek (Port Orchard
area)
- Steele Creek (Brownsville)
Click
here for more information about waterborne illness. To find
out about plans to clean up these streams and what you can do to
help, please contact the Water Quality Program at (360) 337-5235.
The Health District's Surface Water Quality Monitoring Program is
funded by the Kitsap County Surface & Stormwater Management Program.
The purpose of the program is to describe ongoing long-term water
quality trends for marine waters and streams in Kitsap County. The
Water Quality Trend Monitoring Plan details the goals, objectives,
and methodologies of the trend monitoring program and serves as a
guide to Health District monitoring staff. As needed, this plan will
be reviewed and amended in response to changes in monitoring goals
and objectives. Consistent with the Health
District’s mission, the primary focus of this monitoring program
is assessing long-term trends in parameters associated with human
sewage and animal waste from nonpoint pollution sources. The Health
District assesses water quality trends by analyzing fecal coliform
bacteria, E. coli bacteria (lake stations only), turbidity, dissolved
oxygen, pH, and temperature data from streams, lakes, and marine
waters throughout Kitsap County. Monitoring data is provided to
the Kitsap County Surface and Storm Water Management Program residents
of Kitsap County, and staff from other local, state, and tribal
water quality programs.
Because Kitsap County municipalities do not participate
in the Surface and Storm Water Management Program, no data is collected
on Bainbridge Island or from surface waters exclusively within the
jurisdiction of a municipality. Additionally, stormwater monitoring
is the responsibility of the Kitsap County Department of Public
Works and is not addressed in this plan. Coordination with these
agencies occurs to the extent necessary to meet the goals and objectives
stated in this plan and in the Surface and Storm Water Management
Program scope of work. Groundwater monitoring is also not included
in this plan. The Health District’s lake monitoring activities
are discussed in a separate plan.
In Kitsap County, as elsewhere, surface water
quality provides an early warning in determining how effectively
development, land uses, and other human activities are being managed
to protect public health and the environment. Because Kitsap County
streams are relatively small, pollution impacts manifest themselves
more readily, and damage occurs more quickly.
Also, since all Kitsap County streams discharge to the marine waters
of either Puget Sound or Hood Canal, polluted streams have the potential
to impact nearshore marine areas as well.
The major types, and sources, of pollution
affecting Kitsap County's surface waters and their resources are:
- Human Sewage and Animal Waste from failing
on-site sewage systems;
- Inadequate livestock keeping practices;
- Pet and wildlife waste;
- Combined sewer overflows;
- Inadequate community wastewater treatment systems;
- Sewage spills from municipal wastewater treatment
plants and sewage collection systems;
- Sewage discharges from boats (Assessing
trends associated with this pollution source is the primary focus
of the program);
- Sedimentation and soil erosion from improper
land clearing and logging activities;
- Poor construction practices;
- Inadequate livestock keeping practices;
- Insufficient stream buffers and storm water
control / treatment;
- Wetlands elimination, and the re-channeling
and culverting of natural streams. (Assessing trends associated
with this pollution source is not the primary focus of the program);
- Toxic chemicals and metals from industrial
and military wastewater and storm water discharge;
- Urban storm water runoff;
- Closed or abandoned landfill sites;
- Illegal dumping or mismanagement of solid and
hazardous wastes.(Due to funding constraints and the overlap with
other local, state, and federal monitoring efforts in this area,
these pollution sources are not monitored or assessed under this
program).
This plan does not address monitoring conducted
by the Health District for the following programs:
Monitoring plans for these programs are discussed
in separate Health District documents. |
