Ambient monitoring to inform the protection of beneficial uses and achieve water quality goals in Sinclair and Dyes Inlets, Puget Sound, WA
Currently discharge limits enforced under the Clean Water Act are focused on meeting water quality standards at the end of the pipe and environmental performance is measured based on meeting the discharge limits; but meeting discharge limits has very little to do with achieving water quality goals for coastal and estuarine ecosystems. Therefore, an effective monitoring and assessment program is needed to assess continuous process improvement, evaluate the ecological conditions, and provide metrics that can inform effective management of coastal and estuarine water quality. As part of an integrated Environmental Investment (ENVVEST) project for Sinclair and Dyes Inlets (ENVVEST 2006; Johnston et al. 2009) a network of monitoring stations was established to characterize environmental conditions, assess potential impacts, and establish environmental quality trends within the Inlets. Water, sediment, and biota monitoring locations were selected that were co-located near suspected sources (industrial, waste water, and stormwater outfalls; marinas, stream mouths, and other sources) or were representative of ambient marine and nearshore conditions. Water column stations and effluents from industrial outfalls were sampled seasonally for trace metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb, and Zn) using analytical procedures appropriate for seawater (Strivens, Brandenberger and Johnston, 2018), conventional parameters (salinity, dissolved and total organic carbon, total and suspended solids, dissolved O2, pH, turbidity, NO2+NO3, NH4, N, and P), and toxicity. Effluent and water column toxicity tests included mysid shrimp (Americamysis bahia) 96 hr survival, sand dollar (Dendraster excentricus) or purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) 96 hr embryo development, QwikLite – dinoflagellate (Pyrocystis lunula) 24 hr bioluminescence response, mussel larvae (Mytilus sp.) 48 hr larvae survival and development, and kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) 48 hr growth and germination. Additionally, indigenous mussels (Mytilis spp.) were sampled biennially for contaminant residues of metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), lipid content, and stable isotopes of C and N. The mussel data were compared to benchmarks of ecological effects (Johnston et al. 2007, Applied Biomonitoring 2009), samples obtained from a local seafood market harvested from Penn Cove on Whidbey Island (PKPLPC), and data from the national mussel watch status and trends monitoring program (Kimbrough et al. 2008). Results from 2009-2016 showed that dissolved metals nearly always met water quality standards and that water quality in Navy nearshore areas appeared to improve after best management practices (BMPs) for industrial process improvements (US Navy 2012) were completed in Sept. 2013 (Figure 1). In general, toxicity from exposure to whole effluent samples was not observed and ambient water samples were not toxic to test organisms, except that ambient toxicity was only observed during the presence of algal blooms which showed that toxicity was highly correlated with the abundance of the toxic algae Gymnodinium splendens (Rosen et al. 2009). Overall, mussel tissue residues were below benchmarks at most locations (Figure 2), however there were locations that had elevated levels of PAHs, PCBs, Hg, and Cu. Results from the monitoring provide metrics that are being used to assess progress toward meeting environmental quality goals for the watershed.