Drops
Of
Water
Issue 23 October 1998
The first people to find errors in spelling or word structure receive a free map of the Chehalis watershed. Send us an e-mail note telling us about the error.
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Issue 23 October 1998 |
This newsletter appears monthly in 45,000 households throughout the watershed. Printing is done by The Chronicle, and distribution is by the Chronicle, the Olympia Daily Olympian, the Tenino Independent, the Rochester Sun News and the Aberdeen Daily World. This is an early edition available only to WWW users. Please send us your feedback.
The first people to find errors in spelling or word structure receive a free map of the Chehalis watershed. Send us an e-mail note telling us about the error. |
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Yakima, WA - Kathleen McGinty, the chairperson of the White House Council on Environmental Quality is an invited keynote speaker for an unusual effort to bring people in agriculture, the environment, and government together to talk about agriculture and water quality. The second Conference on Agriculture and Water Quality in the Pacific Northwest takes place October 20 - 21, 1998 in Yakima. The registration deadline is October 2nd.
"It is almost unheard of to have agricultural producers, agricultural chemical and fertilizer companies, environmental groups, natural resource managers, scientists, regulators, and private citizens all organize a conference, then sit down and calmly dialogue about sensitive environmental and economic issues", said Rick Kepler, chair of this year's conference.
Kepler works for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Other groups on the conference steering committee include the Washington Environmental Council, farm groups, agricultural trade associations, cooperative extension departments, health districts, state departments of agriculture, ecology, and fish and wildlife, the U.S. Geological Survey, the EPA, and the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service.
"It's an unusual collection of sponsors, and it has certainly attracted attention. We've received inquiries from across the country, as well as from Berlin, Germany, and Lima, Peru." adds Kepler. "We hope other regions will look at the success of this conference and realize that cooperation on environmental issues can become a win-win for everybody involved in the dialogue."
Keynoter Kathleen McGinty is scheduled to open the conference, followed by John Thorne of the American Crop Protection Association, Curt Smitch, who is Washington Governor Gary Locke's Special Assistant on Natural Resource, and Paul Stoker of the Othello, Washington Conservation District.
McGinty serves as President Clinton's senior advisor on environmental, natural resources and sustainable development issues. Prior to her work with the Council on Environmental Quality, she held positions as Deputy Assistant to the President and senior Legislative Assistant for Energy and Environmental Policy to then-Senator Al Gore.
There are more than two dozen sessions and panels scheduled for the two-day conference, with more than 50 speakers and panelists, including university researchers, environmental activists, state and federal regulators, and agricultural leaders.
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The Washington Department of Ecology (DOE), Water Quality Program is currently planning its permit workload for the coming year (July 1, 1998, through June 30, 1999). We will be making permit decision for municipal and industrial wastewater discharges in your community. Permits help protect water quality be setting limits on the amount of pollution that may be discharged into lakes, rivers, marine waters, and groundwater. In addition, permits define monitoring, reporting, and other requirements. The facilities listed below will have permitting decisions made this year>
Municipalities:
Industries
If you want to comment on any permits, you can be placed on a mailing list for a specific facility to receive a copy when available, or to be placed on the general mailing list, please contact:
Municipal Permits, Cindy James (360) 407-6279
Industrial Permits, Carey Grunenfelder (360) 407-6280
TDD (360) 407-6306, or write P.O. Box 47775, Olympia, WA 98504-7775.
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Editors note: This month the focus is on the Wishkah River. Each month we will publish a watershed description from the Chehalis River Basin Action Plan.
The Wishkah River, which drains approximately 102 square miles, includes the main trunk, West and East Forks, all of which originate near the southern edge of the Olympic National Forest. Like the Hoquiam to the west, and the upper reach of tidewater on the Chehalis mainstem, the soils along the streams are of the poorly drained, ocosta clay series. Here, Sitka spruce thrives right up to the high tide line. These Ocosta soils were in recent geologic times submerged alluvium of eroded upstream sediments. Effective agriculture calls for drainage of these soils. Despite proximity to water and population centers, little agricultural development has taken place other than pasturage and haying. Some of the first agriculture in the region, however, was introduction of cattle to these natural tidewater meadows.
Upland soils are of the Hoquaim-LeBar glacial upland series, with the headwaters of the West and main branches underlain by Bunker-Knappton soils. This is very productive timber growing land, with favorable soils and slopes, abundant rain, and a mild maritime climate. The Wishkah joins the Chehalis at Aberdeen, where much of its timber over the last century has been milled. For the first half of this period, much of the timber was floated as sawlogs down the Wishkah, using splash dams and log booms to move the wood to the mills.
The minimum recorded discharge was 33 cfs in October 1942, and the maximum recorded discharge was 7,400 cfs 10 days later.
Using 1990 U.S. Bureau of Census data and maps for the area, and relating census block numbers to the geography of the Wishkah basin, the indicated population appears to be 12,000.
Based upon an average, for the entire Chehalis River Basin, of 2.29 people per household, there are close to 5,300 households in this basin.
The City of Aberdeen diverts up to 10 cfs for municipal water supply. The Aberdeen Reservoir is located at River Mile 32.3 on the main stem. ITT Rayonier holds right to 15 cfs of the Wishkah.
A total of 179 acres have surface water irrigation rights. An estimated one-third of these rights are used.
The land is used predominantly for commercial forest, with some pasture land. Ownership is about equal between private and corporate interests with small municipal and county holdings. Some farming, fishing, and recreational homesites appear on the upper Wishkah. In the lower reaches fishing vessels use the banks for storage and repairs.
This river, and its tributary streams provide good spawning and rearing habitat for salmon. Industrial and municipal pollution in the lower Wishkah and Grays Harbor negatively affect juvenile salmon.
Between 1880 and 1920 logging splash dams were prevalent in the watershed. The Humptulips had at least thirty dams on it and more than 100 were in the Chehalis basin. As logging operations worked from the river mouths upstream, transport became more difficult. Relying on seasonal freshets cost jobs and slowed production. With the splash dams artificial freshets were created. Large amounts of water were needed to flush the logs downstream and, of course, many of the dams were huge. Almost all of the splash dams were large enough to completely block fish passage. Salmon species extinctions and near extinctions resulted from these dams.
When the flood gates were lifted, the man-made freshets scoured the river bottoms, ripping away spawning beds, channelizing the river bed and removing pool/riffle characteristics. The freshets also removed thousands of salmon eggs and left the fish flopping on gravel bars as the waters receded.
One of the most effective methods for diving logs was the use of multiple dams on one river. The idea was to clear the entire length of the river by timing the release of water from a series of splash dams beginning with the highest in the watershed.
While much of the early study on the effects of splashing focused on the blockage of upstream migration, later studies concluded that the most devastating effects came from stream bed preparation. Preparing a river or stream involved: blocking off of sloughs, swamps, low meadows, mouth of streams, and side channels by log cribbing, to keep the logs and water in the main channel, removal of boulders, large rocks, leaning trees, sunken logs, or debris accumulation such as floating logs. Obstructions of any kind in the main bed had to be blasted out or removed during periods of low flows.
To learn more about this river, or other rivers in the watershed, contact the Chehalis River Council.
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I appreciate the chance to look up information about animals other than salmon from time to time. And I also appreciate an obvious idea for a "Drops of Water" article. So I was happy to receive a call last month from someone curious about the blobs growing in the Black River. In past articles we've covered the salmon and trout, as well as the "other" fishes of the Chehalis. Now here's information about the blobs and some of the "other" creatures that one may find in local waters.
The Blobs - These turned out to be freshwater bryozoans. "Bryozoan" literally means "moss animal." The way science classifies animals, bryozoans are in a group all to themselves - the phylum Bryozoa. Most bryozoans are marine, but a few species inhabit freshwater environments. Common freshwater bryozoans are often jelly-like masses as large as a human head. They are actually a colony of smaller animals, and, like colonies of bees and ants, individuals in the mass can have different jobs to do. If you're brave enough to approach one under water, you may be able to see the "tentacles" of feeding individuals.
Some species of freshwater bryozoans have been introduced into lakes and rivers where they do not naturally occur. I haven't been able to find out if the Black River bryozoans are native or introduced. In any event, they are there and they are blobs, however some other blob-like things are out there too. Frog and salamander egg masses can be similar looking. I don't know if there are freshwater sponges in the Chehalis system, but they can resemble bryozoans. There may be blobs out there that we really don't want to know so intimately. My advice is to examine blobs carefully.
Giant Water Bug - This insect is named appropriately; it is quite giant, it lives in the water, and it is a true bug. (So-called "true bugs" are those in the order Hemiptera.) I have also heard them called "toe biters" and "electric light bugs." Scientific types call them "Bellostomatids." Their front pair of legs is sharply tipped for grabbing prey, and they have piercing mouth parts, hence their toe biting reputation. And they are known to fly around lights.
Giant water bugs lurk awaiting something like a small fish or tadpole to swim by. They have even been known to take adult frogs larger than themselves. They are good swimmers and can chase things down over a short distance. Their piercing mouth parts are like a sucking probe contained in a sheath. I once put one in an aquarium where it quickly sucked the life out of four goldfish and a crayfish. I could see the mouth parts probing around under the skin. This is one of those animals that we should be really happy isn't as big as us.
Crayfish - The common crayfish of the Chehalis Basin is the American Signal Crayfish (Pacificastus leniusculus). They are native to Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, but have been introduced all over the world due to their large size and popularity on the dinner plate. They are responsible for the demise of native crayfish species in California and Europe. They are one of the biggest crayfish in the world, and I have seen individuals in the Chehalis that were longer than my hand. Be careful around their claws; I happen to know that even small ones can break skin.
Freshwater Mussel - The large dark-brown-on-the-outside and purple-on-the-inside native mussel commonly found in western Washington rivers and streams is the Western Pearlshell. Its specific name is Margaritifera falcata. Have respect for your elders; western pearlshells can live 100 years! The shells you may find on bars in the river often show teeth marks from otters and other predators. Western Pearlshell larvae, called "glochidia," are released from the females in the spring and must quickly find fish whose gills they can attach to. It forms a cyst on the gill filament and grows into a tiny mussel before dropping off in a few weeks. Trout and salmon are the most common hosts for the glochidia. They are not normally damaging to the fish unless they become extremely numerous.
You may also find the Asian Clam (Corbicula fluminea) in the Chehalis. It has been brought in from Asia as a food item and released into waters in at least 38 states. It looks like a typical clam, and reaches about an inch wide. It can cause fouling of water intake systems and other facilities, and competes with native species for food and space.
Amphibians - If you find a native frog in the Chehalis Basin, chances are that it's either a Pacific Tree Frog (Pseudacris regilla) or a Red-Legged Frog (Rana aurora). The Pacific Tree Frog is usually less than two inches in body length (not including legs), has a distinct dark mask that runs through the eye, and is often bright green, but may be brown or gray or a mix of colors. They have pads on their toes that allow them to be good climbers, and they can be found clinging to walls while hunting at porch lights. For such a little frog they have a strong voice, which they exercise often.
The Red-Legged Frog is up to 4 inches in body length, usually marked with numerous small spots, and are red/orange on the underside. Red-Legged Frogs don't make much noise. Their hatched-out egg masses may be covered in algae and become the most likely blob to be mistaken for a bryozoan.
The Oregon Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa) is perhaps the rarest native frog in western Washington. One of the last known remaining populations on the west side of the Cascades is located in the Black River drainage. They are similar in size and appearance to Red-Legged Frogs, but usually have larger rosette-like spots, upward oriented eyes, no patches of color on the groin, and rougher skin.
If you go hiking in the southern Olympics, you may find Tailed-Frogs (Ascaphus truei). They get up to about two inches in body length, and adult males have a short "tail." They can be a variety of reddish, brownish, grayish or yellowish colors with mottling. They have a vertical pupil, rather than round, and their tadpoles have a distinctive sucker-like mouth. I've read that there are Cascades Frogs (Rana cascadae) in the Olympic Mountains extending into the Chehalis Basin, but I don't know that I have seen one. They are similar in size and appearance to Red-Legged and Spotted Frogs, but can be recognized by having sharp-edged spots compared to the fuzzy edges of the other two.
There are also Bullfrogs in the Chehalis, but they don't belong here, they eat everything in sight, and I refuse to say anything more about them.
Western Toads (Bufo boreas) are our only local toads. They are warty, dry and robust, like you would expect a toad to be, and they have a whitish line that runs down the middle of their back. Their eggs are laid in distinctive long strings along the water's edge. Like other toads they crawl rather than hop, and can be found far from water. When they're hassled by predators and kids and the like they can secrete a mild poison from glands in their skin. This toad is becoming rare in lowlands, and some populations have rapidly disappeared.
There are a number of salamanders that may be encountered in ponds, streams and forests of the Chehalis Basin. One of the most dramatic is the Northwestern Salamander (Ambystoma gracile). Adults can reach almost 10 inches in total length and have distinct "ribs." They are dark brown with lighter colored swollen areas on the head, tail and sides from which they can secrete a poison. They are secretive, and like to hide in and under cover and in burrows. Their egg masses are more conspicuous, being visible as compact masses of clear jelly with developing larvae clearly visible. Look for egg masses in late winter and early spring.
I can't end this without saying something about Rough-Skinned Newts (Taricha granulosa). If you haven't come across these guys, you must be watching way too much TV. They are brown above and bright orange below. In the winter/spring breeding season you can observe their "wrestling matches" in almost any ditch, rut, puddle or pond in forested areas. They are a good example of why it's a bad idea to go around tasting brightly colored animals. The book that I'm getting some of this information from (Amphibians of Washington and Oregon by William Leonard, et al. Published by the Seattle Audubon Society Trailside Series) says that there is enough poison in a Rough-Skinned Newt to kill 25,000 mice. They say that there is little harm in handling one, but you should wash your hands thoroughly if you do.
There are plenty of other creatures swimming, lurking, flying, creeping, crawling and hanging around out there in our Chehalis River Basin. If you have questions about any of them, or ideas for future articles, please call me and I'll see what I can find out. Mike Kelly, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, at 360-753-9560.
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What's the size of your watershed?
| Watersheds within the Chehalis System | Size in square miles |
| Upper Chehalis | 450 |
| Lower Chehalis | 349 |
| Satsop River | 291 |
| Humptulips | 276 |
| Middle Chehalis | 259 |
| Wynoochee | 218 |
| Skookumchuck | 202 |
| Newaukum | 173 |
| Black River | 144 |
| Chehalis Grand Mound | 118 |
| Wishkah | 102 |
| Hoquiam | 98 |
| Cloquallum Creek | 70 |
| Total | 2,750 |
Source: Chehalis River Basin Action Plan
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In a report from The John Hopkins University School of Public Health we've learned:
By 2025, one in very three of the world's projected 8 billion people will live in countries short of freshwater.
A local newspaper reported that 31 countries are now facing water stress or scarcity. India and 17 more countries will be added to the list - and China, with a population of 1.5 billion, may also appear on the list by the year 2035.
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Find out if you live in a flood-prone area. If you don't know, contact local town/city/county officials to find out.
If YES, then do everything on this check list.
If NO or if you've already done the check list, then help relatives, friends, neighbors and other people do the checklist.
Here Are Some Other Things You Can Do to Minimize Flood Damage to Your Home:
Turn off all electric circuits at the fuse panel, gas and propane service at the meter or main entry, and water at the main valve, then LEAVE immediately.
Drive the safest (not necessarily the shortest) predetermined or ordered route to high ground or shelter.
Stay away from power lines and electrical wires and report downed power lines to local officials or law enforcement.
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With our multitude of takes, streams and rivers, Washington State seems to have an abundance of water. However, the demand for water has steadily increased each year, while the available water supply has stayed the same, or in some cases, appears to have declined. This increased demand for limited water resources has resulted in the water rights allocation process becoming very complex and controversial. In order to expedite decisions about pending water rights, it is vital that we accurately assess the quality and quantity of surface water and ground-water within the state. The Washington Department of Ecology recognizes that water-right decisions must be based upon accurate scientific data. Ecology has hired consultants to assist with special studies called Initial Watershed Assessments. Ecology and the consultants will jointly compile and evaluate data in selected watersheds known as Water Resource Inventory Areas (WRIAs). The assessments evaluate water rights, streamflow, precipitation, geology, hydrology, water quality, fisheries, and land use. The assessments describe the water-resource issues which must be considered when making water-management decisions. In watersheds with little existing information, further studies will be necessary to acquire new data. Watersheds with serious water-supply problems will require coordination with local and regional planning efforts to resolve conflicts. This summary document outlines information detailed in Open File Technical Report 94-09, available from Ecology. What are the issues affecting water availability In the Upper Chehalis watershed? A watershed is a land area which drains to a single stream. Ultimately, all surface and ground water in the Upper Chehalis watershed comes from precipitation, as rain or snowmelt. Some of this precipitation evaporates or is used by plants, some flows into streams and rivers, and the rest infiltrates into the soil to become ground water. Some reaches of streams gain water from ground water that seeps into the channel, and other reaches lose water that leaks through the streambed into the ground. Most of the precipitation falls between October and May. The driest months are July and August. Surface water sources include rivers, streams, and lakes. Ground-water sources originate as rain or snowmelt that infiltrates the soil surface and, percolates down to geologic layers called aquifers. The hydrologic cycle looks like this: The Upper Chehalis watershed is drained by the Chehalis River and its major tributaries, including Elk, Crim, Lincoln, and Scatter Creeks and the South Fork Chehalis, Skookumchuck, Black, and Newaukum Rivers. The Chehalis River flows past the gage near the town of Porter and into the Lower Chehalis watershed, 'eventually reaching the Pacific Ocean (See hydrologic cycle illustration). Within the watershed, ground water occurs principally within alluvium, glacial sediments, and volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The alluvium in river valleys generate provides the highest water yields to wells. The highest well yields are obtained in the north-central portion of the watershed, and in the lower Newaukum River Valley. Total water supply in the Upper Chehalis watershed is large, but its distribution is geographically and seasonally uneven. Seasonal variability in precipitation and ground-water recharge leads to large swings in stream flow, ground-water levels, and water availability. Eventually, most ground water within the Upper Chehalis watershed drains to streams or lakes. Some ground water recharges the shallowest aquifer and reemerges in streams near the point of recharge. Other groundwater moves into deeper, more extensive aquifers, following longer flow paths, and reemerges in streams many miles down the watershed. Where the ground-water level lies above a stream or lakebed, ground water will flow into the stream channel. Conversely, when the groundwater level lies below the stream bed, surface water will flow from the stream into the aquifer. In the Upper Chehalis watershed, ground-water discharge maintains streamflow during periods of little or no rainfall. . Water Is required for many uses in the Upper Chehalis watershed: Each of these activities can have profound effects on the amount and quality of water moving through a watershed. Logging operations can strip soils of vegetation, increasing the amount of runoff to streams. -Increased soil erosion can cloud streams with sediment. In agricultural areas, chemicals and livestock wastes can drain into streams. Irrigated agriculture requires significant volumes of water. Municipalities and industries use large amounts of water and may discharge waste water to streams. The expansion of impervious surfaces (roads, parking lots, buildings, etc.) increases the volume and rate of runoff into streams. Stormwater runoff can also carry pollutants from these surfaces into streams. Increased runoff from impervious surfaces also contributes to flooding problems during winter storm events. Water quality is closely tied to water quantity. Water supplies must be of high quality for human uses and for fish and wildlife habitat. Water quality may depend on preserving large quantities of clean water lo dilute pollutants and maintain proper water temperature for fish. During the summer months, the Chehalis River and many of its largest tributaries often fail to meet water quality standards for temperature, dissolved oxygen, fecal coliform, pH, and nitrogen and phosphorus compounds. Currently, 28 facilities hold permits to discharge waste water to these streams. These discharges were permitted on the assumption that the receiving streams contain enough high quality water to assimilate the discharges without violating the surface water quality standards. This has not proven to be the case. The worst problem areas include the Chehalis River between Pe Ell and Porter, the Black, Skookumchuck, and Newaukum Rivers, and several smaller tributaries. Reductions in waste discharges from point and non-point sources will be required to meet water-quality standards. Chinook, chum, coho, and steelhead salmon, and cutthroat and resident rainbow trout reside in streams and rivers of the watershed. The Washington Department of Wildlife summarized the condition of wild stocks of anadromous fish species throughout Washington. In the Upper Chehalis watershed the worst conditions are in the Skookumchuck River and the Newaukum River which have 'depressed' stocks of winter steelhead, while stocks of coho, spring chinook, and fall chinook salmon appear to be healthy. In order to maintain habitat for these fish stocks, streams must contain sufficient high quality water. Habitat is degraded in many streams in the basin due to low stream flows and poor water quality. Activities or factors that affect water quality and quantity include logging, mining, dams, diversions, obstructions, and commercial and residential development near streams. In 1976, Ecology established minimum base flows at 29 control stations along the Chehalis River and its tributaries (Chapter 173-522 WAC). Also, several smaller tributaries were closed-to further water withdrawals. These base flows and closures are necessary to preserve wildlife, fish, recreation scenic, aesthetic, And other instream needs. At two of these control stations (one near Grand Mound and one near Porter), annual flows have decreased by 300 cfs since 1930 and 800 cfs since 1953, respectively. At the Porter gage the minimum base flows are not met an average of 77 days per year. Porter Flows: Next month this article will conclude with: Source: WaDOE publication 95-150 Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New Just how big is agrculture? Look at these numbers from a WaDOE Needs Assessment Report (January 1996): Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New Thanks so much to you who attended, helped out, and brought your displays, etc. to the Watershed Revival. It was a lot of work but it was worth it, especially reaching out to those young people.. Exactly what the world needs. The music provided by Super Duo, Space Pedestrians, Grandpa Olaf's Polka Party, Greg Schneeman, Ol' Djinn Swag was great and well receivd. The support from "other groups" was outstanding. Thanks to the Sierra Club, Sasquatch chapter, the Chehalis River Basin Land Trust, the Lincoln Creek Landowners, Preservation of the Upper Chehalis, Kahle Jennings & the DOE, and to everyone who attended. We publicy want to thank the folks at the Matrix Coffeehouse (Hollie, Rick and Moon) for the generous donation of space, sound system and sound system engineer. Their support of a community event is deeply appreciated! Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New These questions are based on material in this issue of Drops of Water. Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New
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Water, water, everywhere - but not enough:
What is a watershed?
Where does the water come from?
What are the major sources of water?
How are surface and ground water connected?
How does land use affect water movement?
What are the water quality issues?
Fishery issues
Stream Flows in the Chehalis River
Chehalis Ag is big business
Watershed Revival A Special Thanks
YOUTH CORNER
Youth Corner Answers
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