River, Stream and Lake Quality
This indicator describes the quality of freshwater found in water bodies such as streams, creeks and sloughs for 2003. Collectively, stream and lake quality is based on considerations of water chemistry, physical habitat and the health of small critters ("biological assemblages").

	In the Puget Sound Georgia Basin, half of the 24 core stations had fair water quality and half had good water quality. Read more…
	Our interests and activities - the bundle of economic, community and ecological life - intersect and have an impact on both freshwater and marine water quality. Read more…
	Poor water quality is a risk to drinking water supplies. Read more…
	In the Puget Sound Georgia Basin, numerous government agencies are working with communities, non-profits and businesses to improve freshwater quality. Read more…

Introduction to the River, Stream and Lake Quality Indicator

This indicator describes the quality of freshwater found in water bodies such as streams, creeks and sloughs for 2003. The following questions are also addressed:

What is the current surface water quality of the Puget Sound Georgia Basin? How are conditions changing over time? Where do water quality conditions not support aquatic life and recreational uses?

In this indicator, freshwater quality is measure by two indices: a water quality index, which addresses physical-chemical properties such as temperature, cloudiness, oxygen, and pH, and an index of biological integrity, or "IBI." This index measures the impacts of water quality on organisms such as mayflies, freshwater shrimp, and caddis flies, which are the base of the aquatic food chain.

Collectively, stream and lake quality is based on considerations of water chemistry, physical habitat and the health of small critters ("biological assemblages").

The methodology in the Puget Sound and Georgia Basin are slightly different due to variations in legal requirements, but the stream quality results, and the conditions leading to those results, are strikingly similar.

The Value of Freshwater

We could live for three to four days without water, but aquatic animals such as fish have no such luck. They can only survive minutes without water. Water is the linchpin of life. Water is truly amazing, as it can break boulders the size of cars, has more dimensions than any other substance, allows nutrients to pass through organ membranes in our bodies and sustains everything that is alive. Of all the available water resources on Earth, only 0.01 percent is available for human needs. Freshwater is found only in streams, creeks, lakes and groundwater.

Freshwater uses are all-encompassing and affect every aspect of our ecological and economic lives. We drink from freshwater, use it for power and all major industrial processes, to put out wildfires, and to boat, swim, and fish with joy. We water livestock with freshwater and it is a life support for a diverse array of aquatic life, including the iconic salmon. A well functioning freshwater system helps avoid flooding, grows food and removes waste. It provides refuge and a place to fall in love with, as well as a place to fall in love beside.

The Cycle of Freshwater

Freshwater falls from the sky, sometimes in a delicate mist and at other times in a fury of winter storms darkening the horizon. Rain and snow falls and is captured in the mosaic of land forms such as ridges and valleys, coursing into streams and larger river systems. Water and snow follow the contours of the land in much the same way you might run your hand over a sinewy and smooth piece of black granite. This land mosaic that freshwater follows is called a watershed, and collectively, the watersheds in the Puget Sound Georgia Basin are home to seven million people and a vast array of life forms.

The rain that falls to the Earth has three potential pathways and always follows a path downstream:

• Water can be intercepted (captured) by vegetation such as trees, shrubs, grasses and other plant life, and evaporated or transpired (sent) back to the atmosphere from which it came;
• Water can move downslope to a stream system; or
• Water can be stored in snowpack, groundwater, ponds or wetlands.

As it travels over hard surfaces such as compacted soils, asphalt and the thousands of acres of human-made surfaces, it picks up oils, grease, chemicals, animal and human wastes. All of it – unless physically removed by the processes of wetlands, soils and plants – will find its way, untreated, to both freshwater and saltwater.

Visit EPA's Water Cycle and Hydrologic Cycle Web pages for more information.

Why and How We Collect Freshwater Data

In Puget Sound, water quality samples are collected at 21 long-term "core" stations and 22 rotating basin stations. Core stations are selected:

• Near the mouth of major rivers
• Where major rivers enter Washington State
• Downstream of major areas likely to impact water quality (urban centers)
• In the upper reaches of major rivers

Examples include the Nooksack River in Whatcom County or the Green River near Tukwila.

More site-specific basin stations are selected to characterize water quality and to address specific needs for monitoring data. These basin stations are selected to:

• Support planned water clean-up activities
• Confirm suspected water quality problems
• Identify different sources of water quality degradation
• Characterize waterbodies not previously monitored
• Support the waste discharge permitting process

The Department of Ecology is required to characterize overall water quality in Washington State under the Clean Water Act. Based on monitoring results, the state then publishes what is referred to as the "303 (d) list."¹ This list illustrates which freshwater bodies are "impaired" because they do not meet water quality standards. If streams are impaired, then water quality cleanup plans are developed to restore good water quality. These plans are known as total maximum daily loads (TMDLs),² and represent the amount of pollutants that may enter a stream and still meet water quality standards.

In the Georgia Basin, a two-step process is used. First, water quality guidelines are set and represent a safe condition or level of a substance that will protect a particular water use. Second, objectives are set for bodies of water where the water quality is affected by human activity. The BC provincial government identifies water uses that need to be protected. Accordingly, monitoring is more site specific and linked to particular water quality objectives.

In the Georgia Basin, water quality data is collected from water bodies selected because they receive industrial, municipal or agricultural discharges and are therefore potentially at risk of being polluted. Monitoring focuses on the time of year that water quality objectives are most likely to be exceeded. The water quality index is based on the federal Water Quality Index, developed by the Canadian Council of Environment Ministers. This number could fluctuate over time, depending on the circumstances.³ This indicator shows the results of the water quality index for 16 sites.

Current site locations include parts of the Fraser River, Cowichan-Koksilah Rivers and Middle Quinsam Lake.

Protecting Human and Wildlife Uses

In both the Puget Sound and Georgia Basin, the water quality and biological indices are designed to protect human uses, such as swimming, boating, drinking water, commerce/navigation and aesthetic enjoyment, as well as wildlife uses to drink, spawn and otherwise provide important places to flourish. In BC, livestock watering is also protected.

The Water Quality Index

In Puget Sound, the water quality index rates general water quality relative to expected quality. The index is based on characteristics, or "parameters," used to assess whether beneficial uses are supported. These parameters are:

• Temperature (aquatic organisms need cold water)
  
• pH (base vs. acid conditions)
  
• Dissolved oxygen (required for life functions)
  
• Fecal coliform or "fc" (a bacteria related to the waste products from the intestines of warm blooded mammals, including humans. FC tends to indicate other related bacteria are present, the latter of which cause illness in humans and aquatic life, including shellfish)

Washington also measures nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen, as well as "turbidity" or total suspended solids (cloudiness). The results from measuring these characteristics are then combined into a single number ranging from 1-100. The higher the overall number, the better the water quality.

WA Scoring Key

• Good water quality: scores 80-100
  
• Fair water quality: scores 40-80
  
• Poor water quality: scores 0-39

In the Georgia Basin, the provincial government collects water quality data to compose a water quality index. This index is based on the federal Canadian Water Quality Index established by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME). Any or all of the following characteristics or parameters may be measured:

• Temperature
  
• pH
  
• Dissolved oxygen
  
• Fecal Coliform
  
• Nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen
• Suspended sediments or solids (leads to cloudiness)
  
• Nitrate (from fertilizers)
  
• Cyanide (used in making plastics and extracting/treating metals)
  
• Total dissolved gases
  
• Zooplankton (small animals that float near the surface of the water)
  
• Algae
  
• Trace Metals
  
• Major ions

For each water body monitored, acceptable threshold levels or concentrations are set for the water quality characteristics measured. Acceptable levels are dependent on the water uses identified for that water body (e.g. swimming, drinking water). The water quality index is then based on: (1) the number of water quality objectives that are not met; (2) the frequency with which they are not met; and (3) the amount by which they are not met. The scores are combined into a single number from 0-100.The BC Water quality index has five categories, but here they have been grouped and ranked to correspond with Washington's index for purposes of comparison. In both systems, higher numbers indicate better water. Measures for this index are collected only at those times of the year when the water quality threshold is most likely to be exceeded. The rating is based on the attainment of water quality objectives during these critical months.

BC Scoring Key

• Good water quality (80-100): Water quality is protected with a virtual absence of threat of impairment; conditions are very close to natural or pristine levels; or water quality is protected with only a minor degree of threat or impairment; conditions rarely depart from natural or desirable levels.
  
• Fair water quality (45-79): Water quality is usually protected but occasionally threatened or impaired; conditions sometimes depart from natural or desirable levels.
  
• Poor water quality (0-44): Water quality is frequently threatened or impaired; conditions often depart from natural or desirable levels or water quality is almost always threatened or impaired; conditions usually depart from natural or desirable levels.

Indicators of Biological Condition

Indicators of Biological Condition are commonly communities of benthic invertebrates that measure biological – as opposed to physical or chemical – health. These bottom (benthic) dwelling creatures without a backbone or vertebrae include a cast of characters such as mayflies, caddis flies, stoneflies, freshwater shrimp, and worms. This index measures the impacts of changes in water quality (physical and chemical, described above) on living organisms.

The types and proportion of benthic invertebrates present in a stream can indicate the degree to which water quality is degraded. In Puget Sound and the Georgia Basin, reference sites are first established. These sites represent as many different geographic regions and stream sizes as possible. The data from these places are then used to establish the abundance and type of organisms expected to occur in the different environments, or habitats.

Analysis methods assume there is a relationship between environmental conditions in the stream and the benthic community. Second, sites expected of being impaired or sick, are sampled and the difference between the two indicate the extent of impairment.

In Puget Sound, the index of biological integrity, or "IBI," is used to assess biological health whereas in the Georgia Basin, the BEAST (Benthic Assessment of SedimenT) method is used. This data and the analytical tools are maintained by the Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network, or CABIN.⁴ Although BC has been collecting this type of data for a shorter period of time than Washington, the methodology employed is nearly identical.

Indicators of biological condition are related to what species of fish can grow in any given stream. This includes salmon spawning (birth), rearing and residence (hanging around). Macroinvertebrates – our stream critters – are heavily influenced by factors that affect their food source, living space (substrate), water temperature and water velocity.⁵ Healthier streams are characterized by more cobble and coarse gravel and "canopy shading" or the shade provided by trees, shrubs and other vegetation that line our streams (riparian vegetation).

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