Section 319
NDNPDINT SOURCE PROGRAM SUCCESS STURY
Watershed-scale Efforts Reduce Bacteria Levels
I r\ High fecal coliform (FC) bacteria levels in Washington's lower Nooksack
irnprOVGQ RjVer Basin violated water quality standards in the mid-1990s, prompting
the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) to add numerous segments to the state's Clean Water Act
(CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters. The high FC also polluted Portage Bay shellfish beds, causing
the Lummi Nation to voluntarily close the shellfish beds to harvesting. Basin stakeholders completed a FC
total maximum daily load (TMDL) study and implemented best management practices, including nutrient
management planning, upgrading septic systems and excluding livestock from streams. FC levels have
dropped, allowing all shellfish beds to be reopened for harvest. Three Nooksack River tributary segments
have met water quality standards and TMDL load reduction targets for the past few years, prompting
Ecology to remove them from the list of impaired waters in 2008.
Problem
The 826-square mile Nooksack River Basin flows
primarily through Whatcom County in northwestern
Washington State. While the upper Nooksack River
flows through predominantly forested mountainous
land of the Cascade Range, the lower Nooksack
River drains primarily agricultural land. The Lummi
Nation Reservation covers 33 square miles at the
mouth of the Nooksack River near Portage Bay.
In December 1996 the Lummi Nation voluntarily
closed a 60-acre portion of Portage Bay to commer-
cial shellfish harvest because water quality sampling
indicated high FC levels that violated National
Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP) standards. In
August 1998 the Lummi Nation closed an additional
120 acres to harvesting.
Monitoring in 1997 and 1998 showed that numer-
ous segments in the lower Nooksack River Basin
violated Washington's water quality standard for FC
bacteria in freshwater. The lower Nooksack River is
a Class A water, which requires that FC levels not
exceed a geometric mean value of 100 colonies (col)
per 100 milliliters (ml) and not have more than
10 percent of all samples obtained for calculating
the geometric mean value exceed 200 col/100 ml.
In 1996 and 1998 Ecology added 20 Nooksack River
Basin segments to the state's CWA section 303(d)
list for FC impairments.
In June 2000 Ecology developed a TMDL establish-
ing FC pollution limits forthe Nooksack River Basin.
The TMDL indentifies the key FC pollution sources
as agriculture and leaking septic tanks. Municipal
wastewater treatment plants also contribute. To
ensure protection of downstream shellfish beds, the
TMDL establishes FC geometric mean targets that are
more stringent than water quality standards (Figure 1).
Lower Nooksack
River Basin
CANADA
UNITED STATES
Figure 1. The 2000 TMDL assigns each tributary
a FC geometric mean target value (noted in
boxes) to protect downstream shellfish beds.
The TMDL geometric mean targets range from
39 col/100 mLto 85 col/100 ml, depending on the sub-
watershed and its location within the larger Nooksack
River Basin. Ecology worked closely with the Lummi
Nation, Whatcom Conservation District (CD) and other
stakeholders to develop a 2002 detailed implementa-
tion plan to help guide efforts to reduce FC.
Project Highlights
Nooksack River Basin stakeholders have worked to
reduce FC levels through a variety of efforts. In 1998
Washington implemented a new state program that
requires all dairies to adopt nutrient management plans
and undergo regular inspections. Whatcom County
farmers now operate more than 50,000 acres under
nutrient management plans. Farmers installed fences
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to exclude animals from creeks and are spreading
manure only when fields can absorb it. Landowners
have also installed hedgerows along 26 miles of
watercourses and more than 400 miles of filter strips
to protect against overspray and runoff of manure.
The Whatcom County Health Department and Lummi
Natural Resources Department conduct on-site sep-
tic inspections in sensitive, high-risk areas and have
worked with homeowners to replace numerous fail-
ing systems. Several partners hosted workshops to
teach people about septic systems and how to care
for them. The cities of Everson, Lynden and Ferndale
have improved their sewer collection and waste treat-
ment systems to minimize the amount of bacteria
discharged into the Nooksack River. The cities have
also implemented stormwater management plans.
The community-based Tenmile Creek Watershed
Restoration Project worked with landowners to iden-
tify and correct pollution problems from agricultural
land and leaking septic systems in Tenmile Creek, a
major tributary of the Nooksack River. In 2001 project
partners launched a program in which local farm-
ers grow trees and give them to Whatcom County
residents for water quality enhancement projects.
Nooksack River Basin landowners have planted
more than 100,000 trees since the program began.
The Whatcom CD received an Ecology grant (CWA
section 319 funds), which supported hiring a Tenmile
Creek project manager and installing 11 miles of
hedgerows and riparian buffers in that 35-square
mile watershed alone.
Results
EC bacteria levels in the lower Nooksack River,
Nooksack River tributaries and Portage Bay have
declined since 1998. Data show that three seg-
ments—the two uppermost segments of Double
Ditch Drain (tributaries of Fishtrap Creek) and the
uppermost segment of Tenmile Creek—have consis-
tently met both water quality standards and TMDL
targets (Figure 1), prompting Ecology to remove them
from Washington's impaired waters list in 2008. The
key efforts that likely helped restore the Double Ditch
Drain and Tenmile Creek segments include repairing
leaking septic systems and implementing new dairy
regulations. Tenmile Creek also benefitted from tar-
geted streambank protection and restoration efforts.
Recent data show that the mainstem Nooksack
River meets both the water quality standards and
the more stringent TMDL targets at a number of
monitoring sites. Data also show that many of the
tributary segments are meeting the first part of
the standard (100 col/100 mL geometric mean) but
do notyet meet the second part (no more than
10 percent > 200 col/100 mL) or the more stringent
geometric mean TMDL targets. Ecology will continue
to monitor progress to determine if additional seg-
ments should be removed from the list of impaired
waters in the future.
Double Ditch Drain
(ID# 10361)
Figure 2. These three Nooksack River tributary segments
meet both the geometric mean water quality standard and the
target outlines in the Nooksack River Basin TMDL.
Shellfish conditions have improved. By 2003,
480 acres of the Portage Bay shellfish beds met NSSP
standards, prompting the Lummi Nation to reopen
them for harvest. The remaining 115 acres of Portage
Bay shellfish beds reopened in 2006. Despite the
improvements, the Lummi Nation remains concerned
because the tribe's recent monitoring results indicate
that FC levels have risen and sometimes exceed
standards in the lower mainstem Nooksack River.
Since 2003, budget constraints and programmatic
limitations have reduced technical and financial
assistance for monitoring water quality, implement-
ing farm plans and inspecting dairies throughout the
Nooksack River Basin—all of which are critical to
achieving continued water quality improvements.
Partners and Funding
Numerous partners have contributed to Nooksack
River restoration efforts over the past decade,
including the Lummi Nation, Ecology, Portage Bay
Shellfish Protection District, Whatcom CD, Whatcom
County, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources
Conservation Service, the Nooksack Salmon
Enhancement Association, Dorie Belisle and the
Tenmile Creek Watershed Restoration Project, and
concerned citizens. Since 1999, more than $1.7 mil-
lion in CWA section 319 funds and almost $900,000
from Ecology's Centennial Clean Water Fund have
supported these groups' watershed restoration and
monitoring projects.
PROt*
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA841-F-09-001JJ
November 2009
For additional information contact:
George Boggs
Whatcom Conservation District
6975 Hannegan Road
Lynden WA 98264
360-354-2035x115 • GBoggs@whatcomcd.org
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